Identity Search
by Shareon
Summary: When Tendo Nabiki chances across a sophisticated redhead working in a hostess club, she becomes determined to discover the secret behind this seemingly familiar girl. But will she succeed after being denied access to investigate when all of her assumptions and expectations insist that it can't possibly be Ranma?
1. 1: Who is Sakura?

Title: Identity Search

Author: Shareon

Summary: When Tendo Nabiki chances across a sophisticated redhead working in a hostess club, she becomes determined to discover the secret behind this seemingly familiar girl. But will she succeed after being denied access to investigate when all of her assumptions and expectations insist that it can't possibly be Ranma?

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Chapter 1: Who is Sakura?

"It doesn't count. It was a cheap trick. Ranma-kun will figure it out and be back in a minute," Jiro protested weakly. He had to shout to be heard over the loud meows echoing throughout the grounds of Furinkan High School. It wasn't merely the sound of one cat amplified beyond belief; it was an unnatural mixture of hundreds of them, all meowing and hissing in fury. Occasionally a lion's roar could be heard as well, adding a fearful weight to the racket. It sounded like a veritable army of felines had invaded and was about to storm the school.

The sound was so unnatural that it was eerie even to Nabiki, and she didn't have a childhood phobia brought on by being mauled over and over in a pit full of the furry creatures. The worry was irrational, but that didn't make it any less real. The mercenary ice queen of Furinkan did her best to ignore it and continue on with her business despite it. There was yen at stake here.

She asserted, "It doesn't matter. The terms clearly state that if either party leaves the Furinkan school grounds, and there is no active fighting between the two combatants, then the departing party is considered to have lost the fight. I see Mousse is still here and Ranma-kun is gone. He lost."

Jiro muttered a bit before wandering away. It would do no good to argue. Nabiki was right. She always made sure she was right whenever she talked business, and everything was business.

In the bushes, past the numerous metal projectiles and craters strewn about the school grounds, Mousse finally pushed the stop button on the hidden cassette player. The din of cat cries was brought to an end, much to the relief of everyone still in the area.

"And Abe-kun, you're the last one. Lucky you," Nabiki said. She handed over his cut of the pool. It was a few thousand yen. He was one of the few people who had placed a bet against Ranma, and that made him one of the few big winners of the day.

Of those big winners, naturally the biggest winner was Nabiki herself. The brunette always enjoyed it when Ranma lost an arranged duel. She earned a decent profit whenever he won one of these fights, but it was nothing compared to the income she received whenever he lost. Everybody always loved to bet that Ranma would win. Granted, he always did win in the very end, but he was hardly the unbeatable powerhouse that everybody thought. Somehow people always seemed to forget the numerous times he lost on the path to that final victory, such as the time Akane had worn that battle dogi and beaten him. Even in nominally fair fights he occasionally lost, like the time when Ryouga had first learned the Shishi Hokodan.

Those infrequent losses always filled Nabiki's wallet nicely, whenever she could take advantage of them. It was surprisingly rare to actually be able to set up a betting pool. It took a certain minimum crowd size to make it worthwhile to arrange one. That meant that it was not viable to set up a pool for those random battles which happened practically on a daily basis at the Tendo Dojo, Okonomiyaki Ucchan, the Nekohanten, or on random islands which just happened to be floating by. It took a great deal of organization and promotion to set up a betting pool, too, which made the frequent impromptu battles which happened in Furinkan High School useless for this as well. By the time Nabiki could arrange one and pay some classmates to help run it, the fight would most likely be long over.

It meant that she had to take advantage of the infrequent formal challenges whenever she could in order to collect her coveted yen, such as this most recent challenge that Mousse had presented to fulfill some Chinese Amazon ritual of some kind. The exact details of the circumstances weren't clear to her, but ultimately they didn't matter. The script was always the same. Something caused somebody to fight Ranma, they fought, there was a large amount of collateral damage, after zero or more losses Ranma would eventually win in the end, and the status quo was restored until the next fight.

Despite the weakness of Jiro's position, he did have a point. Most of the school had stayed around to see whether or not Ranma would return to pummel Mousse. She mentally gave approximately 1:7 odds that he would come back and conclude the final act of this latest incident today. Regardless of whether or not Ranma returned, though, Nabiki didn't want to loiter around to find out. If he did not return, as was more likely, then she would have wasted all that time waiting for nothing. If he actually did return and won the rematch against Mousse, then it would only end up causing her trouble. The terms of the bets were clear, but she was sure some people would argue. It was better to leave rather than face that particular complaint from dozens of yelling students. She had no particular reason to stay around, too. Classes had ended a while ago, and she wasn't part of any club or association. The only business she had had for the day had been the betting pool which she had just concluded.

Some mental calculations of the Tokyo Metro system confirmed that she would be able to take the round trip to Ginza and be back with a bit of time to spare. There was a new designer purse which had caught her eye, and she suddenly found herself with an extra 10000 yen to spend. The only deadline that she had was that she needed to be home by dinner; food vanished quickly with the Saotomes around. Even without them, if she were late she would probably get a lecture from her father about how bad it was for his precious daughter to be wandering around a place as dangerous as Tokyo. Worse, she would have to face a disapproving look from Kasumi.

The trains were standing room only. They were packed with students who wore their respective uniforms. The various crests, colors, and designs stood out as a catalog of the schools within a 20-kilometer radius. The trains would only continue to grow more crowded throughout the afternoon as the business day ended and office workers started their own long trips home. It wouldn't slow down until well into the evening, long after Nabiki expected to be eating another home-cooked meal prepared by her older sister.

She gave internal odds of 1:2 that Ranma would be in attendance at dinner. More often than not, whenever he disappeared under unusual circumstances after school, he would end up getting home late. In contrast, she gave odds of 5:1 that Akane would be in attendance. It was fairly rare that things escalated to the point that Akane missed dinner in addition to Ranma.

The streets of Ginza were bustling, as they always were. As the premier shopping district in Tokyo, the wide sidewalks and thoroughfares always had people moving about trying to exchange their own yen for whatever nice thing happened to catch their fancy. Nabiki kept a close hold of her book bag as she walked. Crime was very uncommon in Tokyo, but there was no reason to risk being the target of the rare pickpocket or thief.

Once she reached the store, purchasing the purse itself was trivial. Nabiki may have only been a high school student, but yen was the ultimate transformer. It transformed disconnected classmates into Business Associates, and it transformed teenage girls into Customers. The saleswoman was only too happy to help once Nabiki presented an appropriately large stack of bills.

Nabiki's purchase didn't quite match her plain school uniform, but the cream and gold purse would be fantastic with some of her more formal dresses. The warm glow of satisfaction filled her. Things like her new purchase stood as her just rewards for all the sacrifices and all the efforts she had made to collect that yen.

She was still internally preening on her way back to the train station when a shock of red in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was a distinct shade she had learned to associate with both danger and profit. It seized her attention and demanded a second glance. That second glance quickly became a closer look as she hurried over to check if what she had seen was true or if she was experiencing some kind of delusion, as Kuno Tatewaki might.

There were dozens of hostess clubs within Ginza alone, and countless more scattered around the greater Tokyo area. Flare was one of them. It looked just like any other hostess club might. Its well-lit sign could easily be lost amongst the sea of equally brightly-lit advertisements lining both sides of the street. The building was neither especially opulent nor particularly rundown. It did have a wall of photographs advertising the various hostesses within the club, but that was nothing unusual. It served as a bait of sort for lonely businessmen passing by. What made Flare stand out as unique was the content of one of those photographs, displayed rather prominently near the center of the tableau.

It was the shock of red which had caught Nabiki's attention in the first place. It cut through the background and stood as a signature of a female Ranma wherever he went. The brunette leaned in closer and closer until she was staring with the picture right in front of her face. Undoubtedly that was Ranma's photograph on the wall. She had seen it enough times to know. He was wearing a pair of glasses, and he had his hair loose rather than in his characteristic pigtail, but it was definitely Ranma.

Laughter bubbled up from her chest and demanded to be let out. Nabiki tried to force it down. She had learned the value of masking the emotions she felt. They just got in the way of business. It was a valiant fight.

A moment of laughter escaped Nabiki's throat. She reveled in it for a second before she managed to regain control of herself and stop. She carefully erased all traces of levity from her bearing and once again appeared to the outside world to be all business.

It was just too funny. Ranma went out of his way to be manly no matter what the situation might be. His life may no longer be at risk from a seppuku contract he had unknowingly agreed to as a child, but he was still fiercely defensive of his masculinity. Nabiki had taken advantage of that trait more than once to manipulate him into doing something for her. There were almost no circumstances which would explain what Ranma was doing as a hostess in a hostess club. It was the exact opposite of what she imagined of him. He almost got drunk at the mere smell of alcohol, and the idea of serving a businessman's every whim was an anathema to both his pride and his masculinity. About the closest thing he got to non-magically-enforced servility was when he had trained at the Nekohanten during the phoenix pill incident, and that wasn't nearly as degrading as working in a hostess club.

Except in that same phoenix pill incident, he had sat next to a fire and plunged his hands into it time after time despite having a sensitivity to heat as high as a cat's tongue. During the weakness moxibustion incident, he had taken scandalously prurient photographs of his female form to tempt Happousai, the biggest lecher in Tokyo. During the Martial Arts Dining incident, he had starved himself so thin that an iron corset had fallen off of him when he had tried to learn the Parlay du Foie Gras. There was one thing which could drive Ranma to work in a hostess club; he would do anything to learn a new martial arts technique, especially if it would let him avenge a recent defeat and lead to his final victory. That had to be what was going on, and he would need to be desperate to subject himself to this amount of scandalous shame to learn that technique.

It was perfect. Desperate people were the best counterparties in a negotiation. Nabiki could go in and enjoy herself. She knew exactly what would happen. She could picture him stomping around in a skimpy dress and accidentally setting things on fire, not to mention his reaction whenever hot water inevitably flew in his direction. He would turn a corner, recognize Nabiki, and freeze. The panoply of fear, shock, and shame would dance across his face. There would be the stammering excuses and the shameless begging to not expose him. And the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan would be only too happy to keep his secret a secret for just a bit of monetary consideration.

She felt a bit of laughter fighting to get out again at the mere thought.

Her deadline for dinner was fast approaching, but she was sure she could spare a bit of time. She would be in and out in a couple of minutes, with a bit of levity enjoyed and a bit more yen in her pocket for the effort.

The door to Flare pushed open with silken ease and revealed the glamorous interior. There were numerous panels of light lining the walls, and more of them embedded in various tables. Despite the numerous sources of illumination, the hostess club still appeared surprisingly dark. The dark brown walls seemed to absorb the light, and the black marble panels lining the edges of the halls gave the club an edge of classy sophistication even as it set a romantic mood. The look catered to those who wanted to imagine they were on a romantic date for a special event. Actually, the customers could very well actually be on a romantic date, it was just that the female companionship was an included part of the menu.

"Welcome to Flare," a maitre d' standing near the front desk greeted Nabiki with a bow. She gave no pause or hint that anything was unusual at Nabiki's appearance, even though the vast majority of the hostess club's customer base must have been men who had graduated from school long ago. Yen was the ultimate transformer, and it worked for anybody. "Would madam please follow me?"

Nabiki followed behind the woman, suddenly feeling quite out of place. The maitre d' was a middle-aged woman and who was impeccably dressed. She wore a short black pencil skirt and a black jacket over a buttoned shirt. Her short hair had been styled to present a buoyant frame of sleek elegance around her head, and her makeup dusted out the wrinkles on her face while remaining light enough to be practically unnoticeable. Compared to her sharp business attire, Nabiki's plain school uniform felt decidedly sloppy.

Walls of wooden frameworks broke the main room up into numerous of semi-private mini-rooms with black leather seats and glossy tables. The dark wood provided a modicum of solitude between each alcove while the openness of the frames prevented any feelings of claustrophobia. Nabiki was led winding between them, very occasionally passing by some middle-aged man in a suit being served a drink or having a cigarette lit. The idea that one of those girls might be Ranma was enough to bring back that chortle of laughter within Nabiki. She managed to not express it this time, though. The distinguished atmosphere of the club helped her keep it hidden within her.

"Here is our menu of hostesses," the maitre d' said with velvet ease once they had reached a private alcove distant from all of the other customers. She handed over a leather-bound book to her. "Feel free to take a seat and browse at your leisure, madam. I shall return shortly to hear whom you would like to meet first."

"Actually, there is somebody specific I was looking for."

"Oh? My apologies. I didn't recognize you, and I had assumed you were new here. Shall I find your hostess for you? Who was that?"

"Her name is Ranma-chan," Nabiki said. She only got a blank look in reply. "I'm sorry, I meant to say Ranko-chan." Another blank look.

Nabiki sighed, and explained, "She's about this tall with red hair she keeps in a pigtail. She likes to talk like a boy, and probably got into a fight with somebody within the past week which caused some major property damage." No matter where Ranma went, fights were sure to follow, and the script included a large amount of collateral damage. It was the type of thing people tended to notice and remember.

The maitre d' paused a discreet amount of time in thought. She then tactfully suggested in the tone of voice an informed servant might use when addressing an ignorant master, "Perhaps madam is mistaken. We don't have anybody like that here. Is it possible you are thinking of Sakura-chan? She is approximately that tall and has red hair. If I may?" She took back the book she had given earlier, opened the cover to the first page, and returned it to Nabiki.

In the center of the book was a large photograph of Ranma smiling demurely for the camera while wearing a pair of designer glasses and a black lace dress. In the corner of the picture, the name "Sakura" was written in ornately curved roman lettering. On the back of the page were two sections. The top had printed "I work on:" followed by the list of days of the week. Tuesday and Friday were circled, and hand-written in the space next to it was "17:00-21:00". Below that line was printed "Message:" after which somebody had carefully hand-written, "I enjoy cooking and tea ceremony. I hope we can be good friends."

Nabiki coughed, and said, "Yes, Sakura-chan. That's who I meant."

"Quite," the maitre d' said plainly. If she was suspicious, she gave no indication of it at all. "Please have a seat. It is quite early in the evening, so none of Sakura-chan's regular visitors are here yet. I shall let her know you are waiting, and she will be here shortly." She took the book back from Nabiki and walked away.

What the maitre d' had said couldn't be possible. It was inconceivable to imagine that Ranma actually had people repeatedly requesting him on a regular basis. His female form did have the exotic beauty of a foreigner, but that had to be outweighed by his crass behavior and vulgar speech. It was considered unusual for him to go five minutes without insulting somebody. The moment he opened his mouth, people would be demanding another hostess.

Nabiki was still contemplating that particular conundrum as she eased her way into one of the leather chairs. It was every bit as comfortable to sit in as it was luxurious to look at. The brunette sank back with a sigh. It would be easy to relax here and spend hours in the carefully cultivated timeless twilight surrounding her.

A brief glance at a menu quickly disabused her of that idea. The prices of everything were exorbitant. The cheapest drink Nabiki saw was 2000 yen, and at least one of the wines was priced in the hundreds of thousands. It demonstrated the steely edge underlying this world of catered luxury.

She didn't let it bother her, though. The cost didn't actually directly affect her at all. Ranma should have some kind of employee discount. He had better. Nabiki was going to make sure that he paid for everything she ordered this afternoon. The main effect of seeing the menu was to raise her admiration for the owners of Flare. It took a special person to have the audacity to charge that kind of markup, and somebody even more special to have the salesmanship necessary to be able to get away with it.

Nabiki pried her eyes away from the menu and looked up again. She didn't want to miss the moment when Ranma appeared. Soon there would be the shock of recognition, followed by the fight between embarrassment, fear, and despair. It would be the most delicious moment, and Nabiki eagerly waited for it.

It never came.

A red-haired hostess glided into the alcove, which was especially impressive given the substantial heels on her shoes. She wore a cream-colored chiffon dress which coincidentally happened to match Nabiki's purse quite well. Her long red hair had been teased out into waves to drape elegantly down the back of her neck. Some expertly applied eyeshadow and mascara gave her eyes a decidedly smoky appearance behind the expensive glasses she wore, and there was just enough makeup on the rest of her face to give it a smooth airbrushed perfection without calling attention to itself.

She was Ranma. She had to be Ranma. She had the same red hair, the same short height, the same ample bust, and the same midnight blue eyes.

But she couldn't be Ranma. Her designer glasses were coordinated with the rest of her clothing in a way Ranma would only ever achieve by chance, and they were entirely out of place for a martial artist with effectively perfect vision. Her hair framed her head in a way more often seen in fashion magazines rather than in the universal pigtail Ranma always wore. Her muted lipstick was expertly selected by somebody who knew enough about fashion to find a shade which would add just enough color to make her mouth look alluring without drawing attention away from her eyes. Her gaze remained downcast in a demure way which Ranma would never do short of a magical artifact affecting him.

Most importantly, the red-haired girl gave no sign that she had recognized Nabiki at all. No startled shock. No pause in hesitation. No delicious indecision between the desire to run away immediately and the fear that that could somehow make the situation worse. Nothing at all.

"Welcome to Flare, madam. It is a pleasure to meet you. May I have the honor of learning your name?" Sakura asked. She sounded like Ranma, but only superficially. Her voice was silky smooth. All of the harsh edges had been filed off of her consonants, which let her words join together into a single flowing experience. Her modest meekness was vaguely reminiscent of the time Ranma had knocked his head and had thought he was a girl. Much like that incident, Sakura spoke with feminine pronouns and speech patterns, but if anything she was even more deferential.

All of the evidence that the red-headed girl was not Ranma did nothing to dissuade Nabiki. Emotionally she was starting to doubt herself, but intellectually she remained confident. Everything which suggested to her that this girl was not Ranma was possible to fake. Granted, it was utterly implausible that the dumb churl had the ability to fake this, but that was no more implausible than the idea that the girl in front of her was not Ranma.

Despite the tumult raging through her head, Nabiki kept firm control of her external appearance. Being uncontrolled with expressions was never good for business. She spoke with the confidence of conviction, even if she didn't actually feel nearly as certain. "Fancy meeting you here, Ranma-kun."

"Ranma-kun? I'm afraid you are mistaken. My name is Sakura," the girl said with calm composure. She spoke with a slight apology, as if she was sorry for needing to correct the honest mistake of an honored customer.

Sakura's response was simple, and it yet it still managed to fluster Nabiki. It was completely off script. Ranma was supposed to be stammering out unbelievable lie after unbelievable lie while squirming around and sweating nervously. Nabiki should be half-way to suggesting her silence could be bought. Earnest confusion and apologetic responses were not what she had expected at all.

Nabiki didn't let it dissuade her from her original plan. She quickly said, "Drop the act. You're not fooling anybody, Ranma-kun. So what's my silence worth to you? Do you have any idea how much I can get for selling this information to everybody back in Nerima?" Nabiki didn't actually know how much the information was worth, but she didn't let that little fact show. This was a negotiation.

"Oh. I understand, madam. You are of course correct. I am Ranma," Sakura said coquettishly, batting her eyes a bit. She took a seat next to Nabiki. "I'm sorry. It has been a while, and I'm afraid to admit that I didn't recognize you at first."

"What?" Nabiki asked flatly. That was not at all the reaction she had anticipated. She had managed to get Sakura to admit she was Ranma, but there was none of the stuttering denial, or tearful pleading, or anything else that such an admission should carry with it. She wasn't sure what it meant.

Sakura slightly leaned in towards Nabiki, and said, "I apologize. It is entirely my fault. Nerima isn't that far away, but you know how things can be sometimes. I'm sorry that I've been so atrociously difficult to contact. However, we are here now, and that's all that matters, right?" She continued to speak with the beguiling dulcet voice and feminine speech with which she had started. It was a far cry from the harsh, strident, forceful voice Ranma used whenever he was in female form.

The silence stretched while Nabiki tried to think of something to say. What could she say in response? She wasn't sure. Everything was wrong. Sakura spoke in vague generalities, and the content of her speech was unusual to say the least. Far from stammering denial, Nabiki's accusations had been met with graceful apologies. This visit was supposed to be a short little escapade, but it had somehow turned into something far different.

After a few seconds of silence, Sakura added cheerfully, "I know. We should have a drink to celebrate our reunion. That would be fun, wouldn't it?" She had somehow managed to open a menu without Nabiki noticing it and was holding it in front of the two of them so they could both read from it at the same time. "Maybe you would like to try some Suntory Kakubin? The whiskey is quite mild, and it has a delightful touch of sweetness to it. I'm sure you would love it. I'm sure you remember my favorite drink as well. What was it again? Maybe it was a grape spritzer?"

The incongruity of it all felt weird, and it unbalanced Nabiki, as did the prices on the menu. A grape spritzer cost 3000 yen, which paled in comparison to the 10000 yen for the glass of whiskey. She felt too caught up in events. She had expected this to be a quick and easy diversion: walk into the hostess club, embarrass Ranma, get a bit of money and maybe a drink, and be back home by dinner. By this point she should have been walking back to the train station, not thinking about which excessively expensive drink would be least bad to order.

What Nabiki needed was a moment to collect herself.

"Why don't you just bring me some tea?" It would grant Nabiki a bit of time while the hostess had to walk away to find some hot water and steep some leaves. The drink couldn't have been that common an order in a place as sophisticated as this, which meant Nabiki might get lucky and get several minutes of time while waiting for the water to boil.

"Of course. I will need to retrieve the tea. Please excuse me, madam, I shall just be a moment," Sakura said. She gracefully stood up and glided away from the isolated booth, showing an agility Ranma definitely had, but in a way that he would never demonstrate.

As intended, it left Nabiki a moment to sit alone and think. Nothing made sense to her. She was sure that that girl had to be Ranma. She had outright admitted it. However, she wasn't talking like him. If anything, it felt as though she had been trying to feel her way through the conversation, as if she had been trying to cold read Nabiki for clues. It made it seem as though Sakura was more an attentive hostess trying to humor a customer rather than actually knowing what Nabiki had been talking about. Of course, that wasn't possible. Beneath the glasses, and the makeup, and the demure speech it was definitely Ranma.

Or somebody who looked exactly like his female form.

What did it all mean? Did Ranma have a hidden wellspring of acting ability? That was doubtful. Nabiki could read the boy like a book. She had often done so during her various negotiations and confrontations with him. He was practically transparent. So who was this girl? Had something like the mirror copy of Ranma returned? Sakura acted strangely, but she didn't act like that. Maybe some other clone had appeared, or a twin, or something else.

Any further thoughts were interrupted when Sakura returned carrying a tray. She placed the tray on the table and took a seat across from Nabiki. It hadn't even been 30 seconds since she had left, which was far less time than Nabiki needed to figure out her next plan of action.

Nabiki watched with growing horror as Sakura removed a stone bowl, a hemp cloth, a cup, a pot, a bamboo whisk, and everything else needed for a tea ceremony from the tray and placed them on the table. It was absolutely not what Nabiki had had in mind. She had thought she was ordering a hot drink in a cheap cup, not an actual tea ceremony. No matter how informal it would be, it would still take quite some time to complete, and time was already an issue. Sakura's actions were also predefined and would be conducted mostly in silence, which would grant Nabiki no further opportunity to directly interact with the hostess for the duration of the ceremony.

Sakura was wiping the edge of the stone bowl with the hemp cloth when Nabiki decided that she had had enough. She should have already left the hostess club and be on the train home by this time. She was going to put an end to the charade.

Nabiki picked up the steaming pot of hot water, removed the lid, and then threw the water across the table. She flatly said, "Oops. I slipped."

Her target reacted instantly. Sakura screamed and threw herself flat against the seat. A few small droplets of water randomly scattered through the air while the majority of it flew over Sakura and continued unimpeded through the loose wooden framework which acted like a wall.

Sakura jumped to her feet and quickly flounced away in a decidedly feminine manner. As she ran, she shouted, "Mama-san! Mama-san!"

It was absolutely not the reaction Nabiki had anticipated. Ever since she had entered Flare, nothing had gone according to script. Nabiki was used to having all the information and being in control, but ever since she had pushed open that door to the hostess club she had felt decidedly ignorant and caught up in events.

She had messed up, and she knew it. She had felt frustrated, and as a result she had picked the most direct way to resolve the situation, just like her younger sister might have. Time and again she had seen how the impulsive and thoughtless nature of Akane had caused problem after problem, and yet Nabiki had just done the same thing. She had wanted to force the issue, and she had successfully done so, albeit in a less-than-ideal way. She knew nothing good could come of it. It only remained to be seen how disastrous it would be.

Nabiki was still mentally kicking herself when the maitre d' showed up. She still looked sharp, but it felt more like the edge of a katana now. Sakura was nowhere in sight.

"I understand that there was a bit of a... situation here, madam?"

"Yes. I was trying to take a look at one of the pots and I slipped," Nabiki said.

"I see... I think it may be best if madam were to leave and not return. We wouldn't want there to be another accident, right?" the maitre d' said. It was phrased as a polite question, but there was no doubt it was both an order and a threat.

"Of course. I was just leaving anyway," Nabiki said. She pushed herself to her feet and picked up her new purse and her old book bag. She was then escorted back through the club. She had to give the maitre d' credit. There was no obvious sign to a casual observer that she was being watched and forced out of the club. A visible confrontation would be bad for business.

The loose escort left her with enough space to quickly grab a business card from the front counter before she found herself outside once again.

Nabiki had a curious mixture of feelings going through her, and none of them felt good. Her heart was still racing from the confrontation with the maitre d' and her fear of what would happen next. This had been the first time Nabiki had ever been forcefully expelled from a restaurant. Rationally, she knew that no police would have been called and she was in no real danger, but that did nothing for her pounding heart and rushing ears. She hated the feeling of adrenaline surging through her veins. Leave that to Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, and all the other martial artists who were long on adventure and short on sense.

Annoyance featured high on her list of emotions, too. She hadn't expected things to go quite so badly. She had been completely unprepared for that encounter with Sakura. It wasn't like an argument with her father, or like a tricky negotiation. She knew when those types of difficult confrontations were coming in advance, and she could mentally prepare herself for both the encounter as well as for a potentially poor outcome. In contrast, this should have been a simple diversion on the way home from shopping. It was like taking a leisurely walk through a neighborhood park only to suddenly realize that there was a pit viper lying across the sidewalk right in front of you.

Hidden away and nestled among her swirling mass of emotions was also the slightest bit of confusion and doubt. Was it possible that that really had not been Ranma? It was said that everybody had a doppelganger, somebody else who looked exactly like them, somewhere in the world. That was even more likely true for Ranma, who drew trouble to him like a supernatural magnet. Nabiki knew Ranma backwards and forwards, and there was absolutely no way he could pull off a bluff that calmly or act that naturally attentive. Sakura's vocabulary had included some words that Ranma probably didn't even know existed. She had had some knowledge of expensive whiskey as well. Maybe she really was not Ranma.

But that was ridiculous. It had to be Ranma. Her face. Her hair. Her unimaginative name.

Nabiki glanced back at the door. She really wanted to go back in. If she could observe Sakura for a bit longer, from an outside perspective when she wasn't directly engaged with the red-haired girl, then she was sure she would be able to sort things out. However, that avenue was blocked to her. If she re-entered the hostess club, then it was very likely the police actually would be called, and assault was a serious criminal charge to be facing. That was even assuming she had the time to investigate further, which she didn't. As it was, she was going to need to jog if she wanted to have any chance to avoid being late for dinner.

Ultimately, it didn't matter. She would get her satisfaction one way or another. If Ranma was present for dinner, she could find out when he had returned and thus whether or not Sakura was him. Depending on the circumstances, she might even bring up the hostess in Flare anyway, just for the entertainment value alone.

On the other hand, if Ranma was not at dinner, then it was just more corroborating evidence that he was in fact Sakura. Then it was just a matter of time. She could confront him in the evening, or during breakfast on Wednesday, or pretty much any day she wanted. He couldn't avoid her forever.

In the meantime, there was one last thing she could do.

Nabiki's camera was in her hand with barely a thought and she snapped two quick pictures of the photograph on the wall which had begun this whole incident. She also took two pictures of the entire club as well. One way or another, Ranma would pay for this, if not personally, then through Kuno Tatewaki.

The sidewalks of Ginza were crowded, but they were nothing like the trains. On the trip from Nerima to Ginza it had been standing room only. On the trip back the crowd had grown even larger, to the point that people were literally being pushed in to allow the doors to close. It was hard to even breathe, let alone move around. Rush hour was always miserable on the Tokyo Metro system.

Things were better once Nabiki was out of the trains. It was a fight to get out of the crowded car, and Nabiki required a firm grip to retain her book bag as it clung to the throng of people she left in her wake. Once she was out of the sticky mass of humanity, the jog home was easy. She had been walking, running, and living in the streets of Nerima her whole life. The sights and sounds were well known to her. There was the familiar fire station, the familiar convenience store, and Ms. Takahashi's house. All of the habitual landmarks guided her routine journey back to the Tendo Dojo.

Nabiki had just enough time to drop her bags in her room before Kasumi called her down to the dining room.

Almost everybody was present for the dinner. Kasumi and her father were there, as they always were. The two adult Saotomes were present, too, and both were human. Akane was there, so the 5:1 payout would not occur. Happousai was absent, but that was no surprise. He had disappeared a few weeks earlier for some reason, and he hadn't been heard from since, much to the delight of Genma, Soun, and every female and part-time female in Nerima. The only noteworthy absence was Ranma.

It wasn't too unusual for him to miss dinner. Her 1:2 odds suggested that it was twice as likely that Ranma would be absent as compared to him being present. Nabiki wouldn't have even given it a second thought, except for the page she had seen in the hostess menu less than an hour earlier. It stated that Sakura worked from 17:00-21:00, and it was Tuesday. It was still circumstantial, but it was yet another piece of evidence which failed to prove that Ranma and Sakura were different people. It wasn't conclusive, though, and she wanted to be sure.

"Akane, where's Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked.

"How should I know?"

"Well, he is your fiance."

"I am not going to marry that pervert!" Akane shouted.

"So he never came back after he ran away from his fight with Mousse?" Nabiki asked. A blanket denial of marriage suggested that Akane didn't know where Ranma was. If she had known, most likely she would have either said where she had seen him or given a more specific rant about his inappropriate behavior.

"He ran away?" Nodoka asked with a frown.

"Don't worry. He'll be back. I didn't raise my son to run away like a coward," Genma boasted. He carefully eyed the katana his wife carried everywhere she went.

"What about the Saotome Secret Technique?" Nabiki casually asked with a smirk. She enjoyed watching the sometimes-panda squirm almost as much as she enjoyed watching Ranma sweat.

"Saotome Secret Technique? What technique is that?" Nodoka asked.

Genma quickly stammered, "It's a secret. A secret. Martial arts stuff. Very complicated."

"So there's more to it than just running away?" Nabiki asked flatly.

"That doesn't sound very manly," Nodoka said.

Genma was sweating now. He said, "I said it's complicated. It's a very advanced martial arts technique. He'll be back. Trust me."

"Okay. I'm sure you know what you are doing," Nodoka said. She apparently had more confidence and far more trust in the bald martial artist than Nabiki herself did.

Nabiki's question had not been answered, though, so she tried asking again. "So Ranma-kun never came back, Akane?"

Akane's chopsticks snapped in her hands. She said, "No, he didn't. I waited there all afternoon and he never came back. I'm sure he's off having fun with Ukyou or Shampoo."

"Oh my. Let me get you a new pair, Akane-chan," Kasumi said, and stood up.

"See what I mean?" Genma asked, to Nodoka's apparent approval.

Dinner was a subdued affair after that. Things were almost always quiet whenever Ranma was not around. And Nabiki was only too glad to let it be. She instead thought about what she knew. It was highly likely that Akane was wrong. Nabiki internally estimated the odds as being something like 1:50 that he was cavorting with Ukyou or Shampoo. Whenever Ranma disappeared, it was almost never to visit his other fiancees. That didn't help, though. She may know where he probably was not, but she did not know where he probably was. In fact, Nabiki had never really thought about where he went on those days when he didn't return home from school. The rolling fights which Ranma got caught up in had never really merited any particular consideration. It would have been just as useful to ask where a cloud went after it crossed the mountain, or where a wave went after it left the harbor. The chaos around Ranma was a force of nature, with just as much rhyme and reason.

That was up until today. Now she had a theory which she wanted to either prove or disprove. Now she had a mystery she wanted to solve.

After dinner, Nabiki called both the Nekohanten and Okonomiyaki Ucchan to confirm Ranma's absence. They were both only too willing to do so. Of course, there was a chance they were lying, but it was a small enough chance that Nabiki would disregard it unless she had actual evidence that they were. Both Shampoo and Ukyou knew if they did too much to annoy Nabiki, then they could quickly find themselves cut off from the most reliable source of information as to the whereabouts and situation of Ranma. Or, more likely, they would still have access to the information from the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan, but at a much higher price.

The page in the hostess menu in Flare had said that Sakura worked from 17:00-21:00. Assuming Sakura was in fact Ranma, he would only need a moment to change clothes. He must know some kind of Martial Arts Wardrobe Change or Martial Arts Shirt Replacement technique or something. The train trip from Ginza to Nerima would take just over 30 minutes, with a few minutes to walk from the station to home after that. After adding in some time for the delays and various other unexpected occurrences which always happened around Ranma, Nabiki concluded that he would be back by 22:00.

She had the same plan as before, albeit in a slightly different setting. She could picture the worry and despair on Ranma's face when he walked in to the Tendo home and saw her waiting for him. She would make an extra effort to embarrass him and prolong the encounter, due to his having annoyed her in the afternoon encounter. The price of her silence would be commensurately higher as well.

Nabiki sat on the steps near the front door, anxious to get her revenge.

When 23:00 had arrived and Ranma hadn't yet returned, Nabiki's annoyance spiked yet higher. Even considering the various unexpected events which happened with frightening commonality around him, it was still getting to be far too late. The adventures Ranma got caught up in were wild and unpredictable, but there was a pattern they usually followed. Almost all of his common fights, and the individual phases of his more protracted confrontations, were resolved in an hour or less. That would still have put him as having arrived home by this time.

Nabiki kept glaring at the front door, willing it to open.

Once 23:30 came around, Nabiki gave up. He was over an hour and a half later than when she had expected. Whatever had delayed him wasn't a common fight, so she really had no idea when he would be back. All she knew was that she would be able to confront him during breakfast on Wednesday. She couldn't remember the last time he had outright disappeared. Regardless, she would get no answers tonight.

She went to bed in eager anticipation of getting her revenge in the morning.

* * *

Last Updated: August 11, 2016


	2. 2: Who is Nadeshiko?

Chapter 2: Who is Nadeshiko?

Shouts and growls resounded from the yard of the Tendo house. These were frequently joined by the meaty thwacks of foot kicking arm and fist punching torso. Less frequently, the sounds of combat were punctuated by a large splash of water, which would invariably be followed up with even more shouting and growling. In short, it was all according to script. Ranma and Genma fight in the morning, both of them bounce around like magnetically-charged rubber balls, one or both get thrown into the koi pond, and then breakfast is served. It was effectively identical to any number of other mornings that had greeted Nabiki ever since that rainy day a red-haired girl and a panda had entered her life.

Unlike most days, Nabiki's reaction wasn't to roll over and cover her ears with her pillow for just a few more minutes. The sounds of conflict clearly signaled that Ranma had returned sometime during the night, as she had known he would. He always did. The status quo had been restored.

The delay and the night of sleep had done nothing to settle Nabiki's mood. Her playful curiosity and casual opportunity-seeking had grown to have an edge of revenge to it. Originally, she had intended to merely have a bit of fun and persuade a bit of yen from Ranma. That had changed. Publicly embarrassing him was now her new goal.

Much like the morning fight that had greeted Nabiki, breakfast was also intensely familiar. It was just like any number of other breakfasts since the arrival of the Saotomes. It smelled vaguely of fish and soggy rug, courtesy of one drenched Ranma and one dripping wet Genma. Much like those other morning meals, the two of them fought each other over every morsel of food. It had been so long that Nabiki couldn't remember the last time she had had what could have been considered a normal breakfast. It was funny to think that before the Saotomes had arrived, the most unusual thing that ever happened was Akane wearing her gi to the meal from time to time.

Kasumi took her place at the table. That completed the full complement of three female Tendos, one male Tendo, two female Saotomes, and one panda Saotome. It made for crowded seating.

Now that everybody was in place for maximum exposure, Nabiki watched Ranma and bided her time. At the exact moment that he shoveled some rice into his mouth, she nonchalantly asked, "So, Ranma-kun. What were you doing in Ginza last night?" She kept her gaze casual, but she was intensely focused on her target. She wanted to enjoy every bit of his squirming.

Ranma stopped moving for a second in confusion. He looked at Nabiki with a puzzled face. It gave Genma the opportunity to steal his fish and half of his rice before he could retaliate, but Ranma recovered before Genma could launch a second assault. His hands and chopsticks resumed the jabbing and parrying of the standard morning ritual as he asked, "Who? Me?"

It was altogether a disappointing reaction. Nabiki had been hoping he would choke on his rice and splutter, or something. His confused pause was no more substantial than if somebody had come up to her and asked a nonsensical question like how the rocket ship in her backyard was coming along.

"Ginza? You should have told me, Ranma-kun. You could have helped me buy some new plates. We could use some new chopsticks, too. They keep getting broken," Kasumi said.

"I don't know what Nabiki's talking about. I didn't go to Ginza," Ranma said. Something about him was wrong, though. Nabiki wasn't sure what it was. He spoke with a strident and grainy voice of toughness, as he always did whenever he was in female form.

"Don't bother denying it. I saw you there. That cream-colored dress you wore was very fetching. Where did you get it?" Nabiki asked. If he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of squirming, then she would just need to nudge him a bit harder.

"I knew it. You really are a pervert, aren't you?" Akane asked.

"Why do you got to be so dumb, you tomboy? I'm saying I wasn't there," Ranma retorted.

It was always the same script whenever there was an argument. Blame, protest and insult, counter-insult, squabble, fight. If any of the parents was around, then they would either egg them on or try too hard to push them together. It would end when Akane got in the last word in some way or another, and the status quo would be restored until the next time.

Still, there was that strange something about Ranma's actions that bothered Nabiki, and she couldn't tell what it was. He wasn't doing anything to make her think he was behaving strangely. He was acting normally, as far as she could tell. So why did she feel like something was wrong?

"Then where did you go after school? I bet you were out visiting Ukyou, weren't you?" Akane accused.

"How manly. However, you mustn't forget about Akane-chan when you go and play around with your mistress. Next time you should bring her with you too. I'm sure the three of you would have a lot more fun together," Nodoka said blithely.

Nabiki took a look around the table. She was good at reading people. It was an important skill to have in business.

Nodoka maintained her normal look of vapid passivity. Kasumi was concerned about the discord which had entered the meal and was wondering how it would end. Akane was stuck between the contradiction of wanting to accuse the entire Saotome family of being perverted and the fact that saying such a thing to an elder just wasn't done. Genma was looking relieved at his wife's judgment of Ranma's behavior. Soun was intentionally trying to ignore everything at the table in the hope that it would go away. Ranma was upset at having his honor besmirched by the accusation that he was lying, and he was angry at Akane and everybody else for believing Nabiki.

So what was so wrong? Why did she feel that Ranma's behavior was so off?

Genma took the opportunity to hold up a sign which said, "That's right. No way my son would have any yen to buy stuff in Ginza."

Nabiki wasn't going to let Ranma go that easily. It would only take a bit more to get the truth out. She said, "That's true, assuming she was spending her own yen. I wonder what Ranma-chan did to get such a nice present." She made sure to emphasize all references to Ranma's gender.

"Oh my," Kasumi said.

Nodoka used her thumb to idly loosen the Saotome family katana in its scabbard. She asked, "What exactly were you doing yesterday, Ranma?"

Genma growled and held up a sign which read, "Please put that away, dear." He flipped it around to show, "We fulfilled the seppuku contract, remember? Remember?!"

"You pervert!" Akane shouted.

"You are so uncute. I don't know who Nabiki saw, but it wasn't me. I wasn't in Ginza, and wasn't wearing no dumb dress," Ranma said.

Nabiki suddenly realized what it was that had been bothering her about Ranma's behavior. It wasn't that Ranma was behaving strangely. It was the fact that Ranma was acting normally which had caught her attention. The problem that had been nagging at her was that she had been sure that Ranma had been lying about not being in Ginza, but he hadn't been.

Ranma had a poker face which even an elementary school child could see through, as had been demonstrated in his duel with the Gambler King. Nabiki had taken advantage of his poor bluffing abilities several times to acquire a bit of yen from the gullible boy. However, his eyes weren't squinting, his mouth wasn't frowning, and the only thing she could read from him was the growing anger at the accusation. No matter how Nabiki looked at it, he was telling the truth.

So Ranma might have actually been innocent and completely unrelated to Sakura, but that really wasn't her problem. She might have nudged the snow a bit, but she couldn't really be blamed for how everybody else had piled on to form the avalanche which had followed. Ranma could take care of it on his own. He always did. The rest of the script would play out shortly. The argument would reach its climax, Akane would get the final word in, and the status quo would be restored until the next time.

"Then where were you?" Akane asked.

"You came back rather late," Kasumi said.

"I don't know," Ranma said. He eyed the katana still in Nodoka's hand. He quickly added, "But it couldn't have been me in Ginza. It... it..." He hesitated. "It was the ne..ne..nekoken, alright? You know how that is. I woke up in a park somewhere and came back after that."

"Oh..." various people around the table said in unison.

Akane said, "Really. Is that it? Then why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

Genma held up a sign which read, "See, Ranma? If you were with Akane then you wouldn't have had this problem."

Akane saw the sign, and shouted, "What? I don't see why babysitting him is my responsibility. Why are you always causing me problems, Ranma?"

"Hey, I don't need no babysitter," Ranma said.

"Well, clearly you do, if you can't remember where you went for a whole day," Akane said.

Before the argument could go on, a simple question was posed which demanded to be answered. Nodoka looked from face to face, and then asked, "What's the nekoken?"

The whole table froze.

That was Nabiki's cue to leave. As much as she would have loved to earn some quick yen by selling the information to Nodoka, she had no desire to be within line of sight of Ranma's mother when she found out what her husband had done to her son.

As much as Nabiki wanted to leave, Genma was faster. He held up a sign saying, "Well, look at the time. I got to go. Things to do. People to see." The sign balanced on the table for a second before teetering and falling over, the panda himself having already escaped.

"It's school time for me. Thanks for the meal. Bye," Nabiki said. She practically fled the room. She ran up the stairs, grabbed her book bag, and then was out the front door.

Nabiki's feet automatically took her along the roads she always took to school. She had walked the same route so many times that she could follow her habitual path without paying any real attention to it. Familiar landmarks passed by almost unnoticed as she instead focused on what had happened over breakfast.

The entire discussion had left Nabiki feeling unsatisfied. The explanation of the nekoken was so banal as to make the whole effort she had put forward pointless. Ranma had run from the fake cats that Mousse had set up, and in his already frightened state something else had triggered the nekoken in its entirety. He had then disappeared to nobody-knew-where to do nobody-knew-what. That nobody included Ranma himself.

At least Ranma had gotten his just rewards during breakfast for causing her so much trouble.

That raised another point, though. Sakura looked identical to a female Ranma. There had to be something of value there. The exact form of that value was unclear, but there had to be something Nabiki could extract from the situation in the form of either yen or entertainment. She could think of numerous pranks she could set up with a body double of a female Ranma. Ranma might also be willing to pay for knowledge of Sakura's existence, to help distract a certain crazy sword-obsessed upperclassman if nothing else. Additionally, some new photos would provide a fair bit of yen. She could imagine how much Kuno Tatewaki would pay for photographs of twin pigtailed girls, and Nabiki would be only too happy to accept the yen from the would-be samurai.

For that matter, she could probably earn a large amount of yen by setting Kuno up on a date with Sakura. It would be like doing the hostess a favor. Tatewaki might have been obsessive and crazy, but he was rich. There was no way that Nabiki herself would ever consider marrying him, but any girl working at a hostess bar had to both be desperate for yen as well as have low moral standards.

That only left one challenge. Nabiki would need to actually find information on Sakura. It would be hard to do now that Nabiki was known and not welcome in Flare, but she had an idea she could try. She would just call them. A voice on the phone was much harder to recognize than a face. She just needed to do a bit of planning for what she would say in preparation for that conversation.

* * *

Other students might have spent their lunch eating and talking with their friends. Not Nabiki. She used her time for something much more important: business.

There would be the rumor-peddling, the photograph-selling, and the arrangement of international merchandise sales. For her bigger endeavors, she might find some classmates and use the transformative powers of yen to change them into Business Associates to assist her with the enterprise at hand. While others might have wasted their time fluttering around with whatever transitory fancy they had for the day, the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan had more important things to do. She was finding ways to acquire yen.

Wednesday's lunch was still business, but business of a different fashion. It was not immediately profitable. It was instead spent on the fundamental gathering of information which was the basis of any successful venture. With some luck, she would be able to take a phone call and develop it into a very tidy profit in the days to come.

The pay phones in Furinkan High School were poorly maintained, as evidenced by their tinny sound quality. They did have several benefits, though. They were in a quiet corner, and their infrequent use meant that Nabiki had the area to herself. Most importantly, they were available during the day. Banks never called at night. The less unusual she could make her phone call, the fewer questions would be asked; and the fewer questions asked, the fewer problems she would face.

Nabiki took a moment to confirm that she was in fact alone and then dialed the number on the business card she had taken from the hostess club on Tuesday.

"Hello, this is Flare, how may I help you?" a woman answered the call.

Nabiki pinched her nose shut. She then said in the most official and punctilious voice she could manage, "My name is Fujimura Uki. Is this..." she intentionally paused for a second as if she had to read the name off the card, "... Flare?"

"Yes, it is. Yokoyama Yuka speaking. How may I help you, Fujimura-san?"

"I am calling on behalf of the Second Bank of Tokyo. I wanted to report a problem with a check you recently issued," Nabiki said. She intentionally paced herself to keep her voice level and official-sounding.

"What seems to be the problem?" Yuka asked in a concerned voice.

"I have a young woman here who just tried to deposit a check you issued. You made it out to a..." Nabiki paused again, "... 'Sakura.' You listed no surname. I'll need her full name to process it for her."

"Sakura? We don't have anybody here named Sakura," Yuka said.

Nabiki had planned a response to all the questions, protests, and suspicions she could think up in response to her assertion. However, outright denial of Sakura's existence was not one of the contingencies she had anticipated. It was so ridiculous that she hadn't even considered it. She had seen the girl in the club, after all. That was what had started that whole escapade with Ranma.

She thought as quickly as she could, searching for an appropriate response she could give. She said, "You don't? She's a woman about 150 centimeters tall. She has long red hair. Are you sure you don't know her? She says she works for you, and she gave me this phone number."

"Do you mean Yamato-san? Ahh... I think I know what happened. Kugimiya-san must have used the wrong name on the list when he was issuing the checks. Please apologize to Yamato-san and have her return it to us. We'll issue a corrected one."

So Sakura's surname was Yamato. That was a good start. Nabiki only needed to get an address, and preferably a phone number as well, to consider the call a success. Still, something Yuka had said didn't make sense. She had said that they didn't have a Sakura working there, even though they clearly did. And her statement about names was strange, too. Nabiki asked, "You used the wrong name? What do you mean?"

"Don't worry. It's all legal," Yuka was quick to say. "We're a hostess club. Yamato-san only uses the name Sakura when she is working. It helps keep persistent customers from stalking her outside of work. That's why I didn't recognize it at first."

The exact operations of a hostess club were outside of Nabiki's experience. She only knew about them by reputation from rumors. She wouldn't have thought of it on her own, but now that it had been pointed out, the idea of stage names made sense and was obvious. In retrospect, it was dumb to not assume that in the first place.

However, this revelation did mean that Nabiki needed to find out the hostess's given name as well. Having a real surname of Yamato was a bit better than a fictitious given name of Sakura, but there were still untold thousands of Yamatos in Tokyo.

Time was ticking, and Nabiki only had this one phone call. She wouldn't be able to try this gambit a second time, and once Yuka hung up it would be all over. Nabiki had to find an excuse to keep her on the phone to get more information. She clutched at the first excuse she could think of. Hiding her anxiety as best she could behind a tone of banality, Nabiki said, "That makes sense. Actually you won't need to write another check. If you can just verbally confirm her identity on the phone than we can go ahead and process it now. It will save us all some time."

"You can?"

"That's right. As you are the ones who issued the check, it will be fine unless you protest the transaction, which I assume you won't," Nabiki lied. She really hoped the woman on the phone was as financially illiterate as she seemed. Nabiki could feel her heart pounding in her ears, although she kept her voice steady and sounding bored. "So who should the check have been made out to?"

"That's very convenient. Thank you for your understanding. We should have written it to one Yamato Nadeshiko," Yuka said.

Nabiki had to choke back her exclamation at that declaration. That would have been unprofessional, and it would have definitely given her away. She instead said, "Thank you. And can you provide her address as well?"

"Her address?" Yuka asked suspiciously. "Don't you already have it? What did you say your name was again?"

Nabiki's heart jumped at the challenge. She actually didn't remember the name she had made up at the start of the phone call. She had overplayed her hand. Nabiki kept her voice as calm as she could as she tried to disengage. "I'm sorry, please wait a second." She paused. "Oh, I see. My coworker is saying that we won't need that to processes the check after all. I think I have everything I need, but I'll call back again if my boss has any questions."

"Okay..." Yuka said hesitantly.

"Thank you for your help," Nabiki said, and then quickly hung up. She took a deep breath and willed her heart to stop racing. It felt as though it wanted to leap out of her chest. That feeling eased after a few seconds, and everything slowly returned to normal.

It was a quick walk back to the classroom. Lunch was almost over, and she would need to eat quickly if she wanted to finish everything before class resumed. As she walked, Nabiki reflected on what she had learned.

She now had a name. Yamato Nadeshiko. It was completely ridiculous. Who would give their child a name like that? Being named after the idealized flower of Japanese womanhood was the type of thing which could give a child a nervous breakdown, and it would probably result in the family itself being ostracized due to its hubris. It would be like naming a boy Tokugawa Ieyasu, the name of the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The connotations and the expectations levied upon the girl must have been impossible. No wonder she had ended up working in a hostess club.

Unfortunately, while Nabiki had learned Nadeshiko's name, she did not have any other meaningful data. A name was a start, but it was nothing she could really act on. If she ran into the hostess again, Nabiki could call out to her, but that was about it. It wasn't as if she could really go around the streets of Ginza shouting out for Nadeshiko. It would require more thinking about how to actually find and approach the hostess.

Nabiki put it all out of her mind after lunch had ended, and she instead focused on her afternoon classes. Ultimately, Literature and History were far less exciting than the business of business, but classes were important, too. Learning English had been a great help in setting up some international sales, and Mathematics was useful for sales projections and accounting. While she preferred the actual act of earning yen, she could also see the value in learning the skills she needed to be more effective.

Things came to a halt at 14:30 when a deep boom resonated throughout the entire building. It felt like the initial tremors of an earthquake. In most Japanese schools, this would have been the cue to take shelter under a table or in a doorway. In Furinkan, a very different response was warranted. Everybody, including Nabiki, immediately rushed to the nearest window to watch. Explosions were a regular sound in the school. They signaled the start of the familiar script, and nobody wanted to miss the excitement. As the teacher had been the first one to reach a window, classes had also taken a short pause in deference to the ongoing show. There was nothing else to do besides watch the fight.

In the courtyard, Ranma was picking himself up off the ground. Ryouga had just jumped out of a window to follow him.

"Pretty good. But can you do it again?" Ranma asked. He charged forward towards Ryouga and punched him. In the distance his arms looked a bit blurry, as if they had been caught on film by a slightly out-of-focus camera. It masked the extreme speed of his flurry of punches as he pummeled Ryouga.

For his part, Ryouga barely flinched as he endured the barrage. Fists which could shatter concrete only slightly affected him. He shouted, "All too easy. Take that!" He swept his arms in an exaggerated sweeping gesture, as if to entrap Ranma in a bear hug.

"Not this time!" Ranma shouted. He jumped forward, grabbed Ryouga's head, and vaulted over him. As he leaped, the ground beneath him exploded, sending rubble flying backwards into the school walls. "That's it? You've been gone for weeks. I thought you'd have figured out something better by now."

"I'm just getting started!" Ryouga shouted. He spun around and tried to punch Ranma's face.

Ranma ducked underneath and sent another flurry of punches into Ryouga's exposed stomach.

"You delinquents!" a child's voice interrupted. All eyes naturally turned to the sound. The young form of Hinako Ninomiya stood at the entrance of the school. The teacher held up a coin, pointed it at the pair of fighting martial artists, and shouted, "Happo Five-Yen Satsu!"

"Look out!" Ranma shouted. He pushed off against Ryouga's shoulder and vaulted out of the line of fire. Ryouga was less fortunate. The eternally lost boy collapsed to the ground as the teacher drained his battle aura. Concurrently, Hinako grew, until her voluptuous form filled her tailored and now tightly-fitting clothes.

"Stand still and take your punishment, you delinquent!" Hinako shouted in a now much more mature voice.

"No way," Ranma said. He leaped over to and then out through the school gate in two bounds.

"Get back here! Classes are still in session!" Hinako shouted and gave chase.

Ryouga groaned and pushed himself upright. He looked as if he had been run over by a truck. That he could get to his feet at all after being drained by Hinako was impressive. That same attack had left Kodachi, Ukyou, Shampoo, and even Ranma in a limp heap in its wake. The eternally lost boy then meandered off after the two other fighters. At least, it looked like he was trying to give chase. He departed by bashing through the school wall in vaguely the same direction as the other two. This left the courtyard empty once again.

It was all too common for Ranma to disappear like that. It was more unusual for him to actually walk home with Akane than it was for him to be pulled away from school by some battle. Or some wish. Or some promise of a cure. Or by whatever other random incident happened to occur.

It didn't matter, though. Nabiki didn't have to actually see it to know how the encounter would end. The script was always the same. Something caused somebody to fight Ranma, they fought, there was a large amount of collateral damage, after zero or more losses Ranma would eventually win in the end, and the status quo was restored until the next fight. She gave the same 1:2 odds she always did that Ranma would be home by dinner.

If nothing else, Ranma's most recent encounter did demonstrate one thing clearly. Nabiki reflected with bemusement how silly she had been to actually have thought that that demure girl in the hostess club could possibly have been Ranma. The vulgar boy couldn't go five minutes without insulting somebody, and he had the sophistication of a tramp. He probably didn't even know what chiffon was, let alone would ever wear it. In retrospect, the whole thing felt foolish on her part.

The departure of Ranma signaled the end of the show. Nabiki's teacher resumed his place at the front of the classroom, and the students likewise resumed their seats. The fight had been a nice diversion from the lecture of the atomic bomb and how its usage had influenced the development of Japan, but it was now over. Given the late hour of the afternoon, that would most likely be the last interruption of the day. The chaos had passed for now, and the earliest it would resume would be in the Tendo household that night.

After classes ended, Akane returned to the dojo immediately. Nabiki had other things planned. She spent her time alone. It wasn't as though she had any friends to waste her time with meaningless babble of a recent movie, or any clubs to slave away for while working without pay. She had made that decision long ago. The mercenary ice queen of Furinkan instead spent her time in business. She sold products, bought rumors, traded favors, and balanced books. All the while, the increase of yen served as a scorecard to show how well she was doing in her efforts.

As was a well-ingrained habit, she kept an eye on the clock. As long as she was back by dinner, nobody asked too many questions or raised any fuss. She left with plenty of time to visit a nearby photography store. It was right where it always was, near a park and by a convenience store. She paid them and the various other familiar landmarks of Nerima no attention as she unconsciously walked her habitual path.

Once she had arrived at her destination, she dropped off her canisters of film to be developed. They would be ready by Thursday. While she could have requested expedited service, she was in no particular hurry. She didn't want to waste yen for no good reason.

After her errand was done, she took the equally familiar path back to the Tendo Dojo. She didn't bother to think about the trip. Her feet automatically took her forward step by step. It let her instead focus on the problem, or more precisely the opportunity, that Yamato Nadeshiko represented. Unfortunately, the short walk provided no answers as she quickly found herself at the front gate of her home.

By the time Nabiki arrived at the Tendo house, everybody else was already there. Soun was sitting in the living room reading a newspaper, and Genma was sitting outside in a meditative position. He was almost certainly sleeping. Akane was there as well, as odds had suggested she would be. Unfortunately, she was trying to cook dinner, but the watchful eyes of both Kasumi and Nodoka ensured that her food would be edible. Hopefully.

Much less certain had been Ranma's presence. Apparently he had beaten the odds and was in fact present. He was male, but he smelled faintly of rubber for some reason. Neither Ryouga nor Hinako was in sight, and Ranma was neither sulking nor fuming. She wasn't sure how, but he must have beaten one or both of them in some fashion before returning to the Tendo home. Status quo restored.

Dinner itself was as normal as dinner ever got to be at the Tendo household. Nodoka had made some comment alluding to Ranma getting married to Akane, whereupon Ranma had protested, Akane had blamed, Ranma had insulted, Akane had counter-insulted, and things had escalated. Genma commented on how the pair already acted like a couple, which shed some light upon his relationship with Nodoka.

Nabiki ignored it all as easily as she ignored the paths she habitually followed throughout Nerima. It was always the same script whenever there was an argument. There was nothing she really needed to pay attention to, unless she wanted a bit of free entertainment. This evening she had better things to think about than watching how Akane got in the last word before the status quo was restored until next time.

If Nabiki could develop a rapport with Nadeshiko, she was sure she would be able to turn a good profit by arranging a date between her and Kuno. They were a perfect match. Her preposterously pretentious name demonstrated that. If anything, Kuno would find the grandiose pomposity as proof that she was destined for him. The only question was how to establish that contact. Nabiki was banned from Flare, and she only had a name to go by.

A dinner spent in thought shed no light on the matter. Nabiki went to bed still thinking about both the question of what to do as well as the stacks of yen a solution to the question represented.

* * *

Last Updated: September 16, 2018


	3. 3: Who is Ranma?

Chapter 3: Who is Ranma?

School on Thursday was completely normal. The main rumor permeating the school was that some petty squabble had occurred during lunch between Ranma, Akane, and Ukyou. It had few details of who had started the argument and what had actually happened, but such events were so commonplace that there was no reason to bother finding out more. The only question was whether Genma or Soun had happened to be in the area during the fight, and that didn't really make any difference, either. It was always the same script whenever there was an argument. Blame, protest and insult, counter-insult, squabble, fight. If any of the parents was around, then they would either egg them on or try too hard to push them together. It would end when Akane got in the last word in some way or another, and the status quo would be restored until the next time.

Classes also ended without any major attack on Ranma. In fact, the only thing which made the day at all notable was what didn't happen. Specifically, Nabiki still hadn't figured out a plan for what she would do in regard to Nadeshiko.

The easiest course of action would be to use the power of yen to transform one of her classmates into a Business Associate, and then use that person as an intermediary to approach the hostess while she was working a shift at Flare. Assuming the advertisement sheet Nabiki had read was correct, the Business Associate would be able to go there on Friday. However, that solution was wholly unsatisfactory. It just had too many complications and drawbacks.

Nabiki would need to provide that person with enough guidance as to how to judge whether Nadeshiko would be open to the idea of some compensation dating with the "very rich and only slightly eccentric modern samurai who was well-known throughout the community and was a model of behavior and honor." No mention need be made as to what he was known for and what type of model he was. Nabiki would then be forced to trust the judgment of that Business Associate in regard to Nadeshiko's opinion and attitude. Finally, she would need to find a way to prevent the Business Associate from getting any clever ideas. Yen was the ultimate transformer, and it could easily transform a Business Associate into an Independent Agent who would cut her out of the potential deal entirely and capture all the theoretical profit by dealing with Kuno directly.

Trust was as rare as friendship for Nabiki. It wasn't personal, it was business, and everything was business.

In the end, Nabiki decided that it would be best to just do everything herself. That led directly to the obvious problem of how to actually do it. She couldn't just walk into the club and find Nadeshiko there. After her last visit to Flare, with her attack on the hostess, that would result in Nabiki promptly being thrown out. It could even lead to her being arrested for trespassing.

Nabiki once again cursed letting her emotions overcome her sensibilities on Tuesday. She had known it would cause problems immediately after she had thrown the hot water at Nadeshiko. However, what was done was done. Further self-recrimination would do nothing to advance her endeavors. What she needed was a plan.

On the upside, she had plenty of time to generate that plan. On the downside, the thought of all that tantalizing yen dangling just outside her reach was absolutely infuriating. It continued to tease at her as she carelessly walked the habitual path to the photography shop, as she picked up the photographs she had dropped off at the store, as she walked the familiar path back home, as she ate dinner while ignoring the effectively-scripted argument around the table, as she completed her homework, and as she went to bed. And it continued to nag at her as she ate breakfast on Friday, and as she walked the habitual path to school, and as she learned all about Japanese Literature and English in the morning.

It was only during lunch that the seed of an idea hit her. She was eating alone, as she always did when not trying to enact some enterprise with some Business Associates, when inspiration struck.

The whole idea of locating Nadeshiko was being driven by her uncanny resemblance to Ranma's female form. By definition, resemblance went in both directions. If she could use Nadeshiko as a proxy for Ranma, then she could also use Ranma as a proxy for Nadeshiko. She could get a female Ranma to smooth her entrance into Flare. Once she was inside, she was sure she would be able to make contact with Nadeshiko. If only she could talk, Nabiki was sure she could rectify things. She could explain the situation, and if absolutely necessary even apologize. Then it would be an easy matter to gauge the hostess's opinion on a little compensation dating on the side, do a little convincing if Nadeshiko was reluctant, and generally lay the groundwork for a bit of clever and profitable matchmaking.

The idea continued to bloom throughout the afternoon. There was the photograph Nabiki had taken of the display in the front of Flare, back when she had thought the picture was of Ranma. Nabiki could confront Ranma with it and subtly suggest that Akane, Nodoka, and everybody else might be interested in finding out where it had been taken. She was sure Ranma would be nervous and off-balance. When he protested his innocence, as he was sure to do, she would allow herself to hold off on exposing his supposed secret and give him a chance to prove that he and Nadeshiko were two different people. Naturally the easiest and best way to do that would to be to get both Ranma and Nadeshiko together in the same place at the same time, and so they would be off to Flare.

If Nabiki played it just right, she might even be able to get Ranma to offer her a bit of yen, too. Her time was valuable, and there was the Tokyo Metro fare to consider as well. It was only right and proper that Ranma compensate her for the trouble she would be taking on his behalf.

The plan was perfect. She would find Ranma after school and put it into action. If they left immediately, then there would be the added benefit that they would arrive in Ginza well before Nadeshiko was scheduled to start her shift at 17:00. She could already imagine the growing nervousness Ranma would experience as time passed without the hostess appearing. It would be easy to add to it with a few well-timed comments. It would be more than worth the extra time.

The main obstacle would be to get Ranma alone. If anybody else was around, they would be an unpredictable factor which could potentially ruin the line of accusation Nabiki had planned. This was especially true if Akane were around. She was liable to hit first and ask questions later. At best this would cause a delay and prevent their immediate departure for Ginza, and at worst it could potentially ruin everything if the reprieve and extra time were to cause Ranma to act differently.

"Ranma, you idiot!"

Outside, Ranma was blowing a raspberry at Akane as he dodged back and forth in the courtyard. Akane was swinging an inordinately large mallet around trying to hit him. She swung once, which prompted Ranma to vault over her head and land behind her.

"How can a gorilla like you be so slow?" Ranma's voice carried clearly through the courtyard and into Nabiki's classroom. She watched the near-daily show from the open window. The half of her class who hadn't immediately left once the lessons for the day had ended had joined her in spectating.

Nabiki sighed to herself. It was always the same script whenever there was an argument. Normally she would either watch with amusement at their various foibles, or she would ignore them in favor of more pressing matters. This time, though, the argument was actively interfering with what Nabiki wanted to do. It would completely ruin any chance that she would be able to talk to Ranma before they got home. That meant there would no opportunity to make him squirm with nervous impatience in Ginza. It was very disappointing.

Out in the courtyard, Akane kicked backwards towards where Ranma had landed behind her. He sidestepped to the left in an exaggerated manner while mocking, "Oh, you're getting better. That one might have a hit a turtle. You know, if you surprised it, and if it were sleeping."

"Dry up and die!" Akane shouted. She pivoted and followed up with a giant two-handed swing of the mallet as though it were an over-sized baseball bat.

Ranma's showboating had left him off-balance, and the mallet connected directly against his chest. It sent him flying over the school fence. Nabiki's gaze naturally followed him, but she was temporarily dazzled by the sun to her left. She held up her hand to block it as she watched the last traces of Ranma disappearing off to the right.

Akane was left panting with her weapon still held in her follow-through position.

"Now that he had coming," somebody mused out loud.

Nabiki turned away from the window. Now that the show was over, she needed to hurry home. It wasn't as if the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan had any friends or anybody else to hold her up after class, and any business she had could wait until tomorrow. If she was fast, she would be able to find Ranma before Akane had regained her temper. The ghost of yen of the future taunted her, and loitering was no way to transform it into the physical yen of the present.

There was no way to catch up with Akane for the walk home. The martial artist was in much better physical condition than Nabiki, who hadn't practiced in years. Her sister also had a substantial head start. Most likely, by the time Nabiki got home, the youngest Tendo would have already changed clothes and be wasting her time breaking bricks in the dojo, as she tended to do when she wanted to both release some stress and avoid Ranma in the Tendo house.

Nabiki didn't even bother paying attention to the familiar streets of Nerima as she quickly walked back home on her own. The habit of years led her feet one after the other without conscious thought. It let her concentrate instead on bigger questions and larger plans.

Ranma and Akane's argument had solved one particular conundrum quite nicely. Akane would be actively avoiding Ranma, and vice-versa. It was very convenient. The most likely companion of Ranma was now out of the equation. All Nabiki needed to do was find Ranma in the immediate future to take advantage of the situation. With some luck, he would already be home by the time she got there. There were less than 1:2 odds that he would be, but it wasn't impossible.

Nabiki pushed open the front door, and announced, "I'm home." It was time to find out how lucky she was.

"Welcome home," Kasumi and Nodoka both answered from the kitchen. Neither of the fathers answered Nabiki from where they were playing Go in the living room. At their level of play, a moment of distraction would quickly mean the disappearance of some key pieces in the match. Never mind that the piece would more accurately have been described as being kidnapped than officially captured; it would still be gone, and its absence could turn the tide of battle.

Akane didn't answer Nabiki, either. The shouts and crashes coming from the direction of the dojo served as proof that Akane was there, as Nabiki had expected. Ranma never wasted his time breaking things unless it was part of a fight or for special training.

It was as good a time as any to corner Ranma. He would be as alone now as he ever was. There was always the chance that Shampoo, or Kodachi, or some heretofore unknown traveling salesman of magical artifacts, would barge in while they were talking. However, those random acts of chaos were impossible to predict and impossible to avoid, so there was no reason to try to plan around them.

"Have you seen Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked the two women cooking in the kitchen.

"I don't think so," Kasumi said.

"Have you checked our room?" Nodoka asked.

"Not yet," Nabiki said. She walked back to the main entrance of the Tendo house and walked up the stairs to the bedrooms on the upper floor. She made a quick stop at her room to drop off her book bag and pull out one of the two photographs she had taken of the advertisement wall of Flare. She only needed one. It was good to have a backup hidden away in case Ranma did something drastic, like trying to destroy the photo when she confronted him. She still had the negatives, but she didn't want to wait for more copies to be developed.

Once the mercenary ice queen of Nerima was prepared, she crossed the hall to the Saotome room and barged in. She didn't bother to knock. If she caught Ranma in the middle of changing, or in some other compromising situation, it would have only made it that much more fun. She announced, "Ranma-kun, remember how..."

Nabiki stopped her opening line when she saw that there was nobody actually in the room. It was a bit of an anti-climax. Her plan would need to wait. She knew that the argument between Akane and Ranma earlier had postponed her, but she had hoped it wouldn't have delayed her timeline by that much. She only hoped that Ranma would return before approximately 19:30, so she could still get to Flare with enough time to talk to Nadeshiko. Otherwise, she would need to wait until Tuesday.

As disappointing as Ranma's absence was, it did present an opportunity as well. There was nobody in the room besides Nabiki, and she was always interested in expanding her wardrobe. She was sure that Ranma wouldn't mind her borrowing a couple of pieces of clothing for a while. He would have complained if he minded, and he had certainly never complained in the past. If it was because he had never noticed, then it was so much the better.

Surprisingly, Ranma had fairly good taste in female fashion. Some of his outfits were clearly designed to be excessively eye-catching and fantastical, if not outright bait for Happousai, but most of them were quite attractive. Unfortunately, Nabiki was substantially larger than Ranma's female form in all ways except her chest, which meant that she wouldn't be able to help herself to any of his plethora of dresses and skirts. She would need to limit herself to borrowing tops and accessories.

She crossed the room and opened the closet. It was like taking a proverbial trip down memory lane as she flipped past outfit after outfit, looking for whatever struck her fancy.

There was the yellow, teal, and red outfit Ranma had worn on his date with Kuno when he had found the wishing sword. There was the jumper and shirt that he had worn when he had managed to convince both Ryouga and Akane that he was Hibiki Yoiko, the sister of Ryouga. There was the bloomers and shirt combination he wore whenever he wanted to join the girls in gym class at school for whatever reason.

Ranma had a wide collection of leotards of different colors and sleeve lengths, too. There was the long-sleeved green one he had worn when practicing for his Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics contest against Kodachi. Next to that was the pink one he had worn for the actual fight against her, complete with associated ribbon and clubs. There were several more specialized bunny leotards, too, with their distinctive fuzzy tails, furry ears, pantyhose, and collars. There was the pink one he had worn when he had tried to out-cute Kurenai Tsubasa, the black one he had worn when he had fought Mousse during the Cat Tongue incident, and more.

The leotard section smoothly transitioned to the numerous swimsuits that Ranma had. There were several practical and even boring one-piece suits, including the plain one used as a school uniform for swimming class. These gave way to more ornate and frilly one-piece suits, such as the one he had worn when trying to find the haircut exemption coconut from Principal Kuno. After that was the plethora of bikinis he had, ranging from the very usable ones to the more notional ones which were liable to shred if they ever actually touched a body of water.

Ranma also had a large number of dresses. There was the standard female Furinkan High School uniform he occasionally wore to trick Ryouga, Kuno, or whoever else. There was the tasteful innocent white ruffle dress with cap sleeves from the time he had hit his head and thought he was a girl. There was the cheerleading uniform he had worn in his duel with Konjo Mariko, complete with pompoms and batons. There was the plain green one he had used for the cover photograph of one of the audio CDs Nabiki had had produced and sold.

The ongoing profits from that enterprise still brought a smile to her face.

Past the dresses were a surprisingly large number of kimonos. There was the kimono Ranma had worn in that Martial Arts Badminton tournament from that time when Akane had eaten the super soba. Next to it was the kimono he had worn in the Martial Arts Tea Ceremony fight with Miyakoji Satsuki, or more precisely in his fight with her monkey. Next to that was the kimono he had worn on his date with the spirit of that old man who had been in a coma. And there were more, too. Strangely, Nabiki didn't see a single male kimono in the closet; they were all female ones.

In fact, it was quite amazing exactly how much female clothing Ranma had in general. He had a fair bit more of it than both Kasumi and Akane. Now that she actually looked at it, he even had more than Nabiki herself did. Every time there was another adventure which called for it, Ranma would somehow just happen to have an appropriate outfit for the situation. If he needed to lure out Happousai to learn the secret of the Happo-Fire Burst, he just happened to have a tennis dress at hand. If he wanted to teach a mirror copy of his female form how to pick up boys, he just happened to have two matching black and white strapless dresses, complete with color-coordinated handbags, high-heel shoes, and accessories. It was an inordinate amount of clothes for somebody who spent less than half of his time as a girl, and it was certainly more than a poor martial artist should have.

Then again, it was said that the child of a frog is a frog. So what did that make the child of Saotome Genma, petty thief extraordinaire? It was probably best to not think too hard about where Ranma had been acquiring designer clothes.

Nabiki had just skipped past a red silk cheongsam when her hand froze. She recognized the next dress. She pulled it out to confirm what she thought she had seen. In the full light of the room it was undeniable. It was a cream-colored chiffon dress which coincidentally happened to match the handbag Nabiki had just purchased on her last trip to Ginza. It was the same delicate confection she had seen only once before: on Tuesday, on the body of one Yamato Nadeshiko.

It was a coincidence. It had to be. It was an outfit Ranma had worn on one of his past adventures that Nabiki had long since forgotten about. Or maybe Akane had purchased it recently, but then Kasumi had had it washed and had then accidentally placed it in Ranma's closet by mistake. Never mind that Akane had no way to afford such a dress; maybe Kuno had bought it for her for some reason. Never mind that the bust was clearly too large for her younger sister; it was the only possible explanation.

Nabiki picked it up, along with the other clothes she had pulled off the rack, and rushed out of the room. She dropped the rest of the clothes onto her bed, and then all but ran down to the dojo. She had to be sure.

"Hey, Akane," Nabiki interrupted once she had slid open the door to the dojo. "I saw this dress in my closet, but it's not mine. I think Kasumi-oneechan gave it to me by mistake, and I wanted to give it back to you before I forgot."

Akane stopped what she was doing, and the cloud of cement particles surrounding her slowly drifted to the ground. The martial artist took a look at her sister, and then said, "That's not mine. Maybe it's Kasumi-oneechan's? Or maybe it's Saotome-san's? I don't think I've ever seen her wear anything besides a kimono, but she has to have something, right?"

"Maybe. I guess it's got to be, unless you happen remember Ranma-kun wearing something like this on one of his dates, or something," Nabiki said. She spoke negligently, like it was a chance comment she was joking about rather than something important.

"Not that I remember," Akane said.

"Thanks," Nabiki said. She left the dojo and re-entered the house proper. The next stop was the kitchen.

A fiery lump was starting to form in Nabiki's stomach. The dress could have been Kasumi's, or Nodoka's, but it didn't seem like either of their styles. It looked much too modern for a traditionalist like Nodoka, and Kasumi very rarely left the home for anything besides shopping. Her older sister was far too practical to buy something she would wear once a year at most.

Nabiki didn't even have a chance to say something in the kitchen doorway before Nodoka said, "That's beautiful, Nabiki-chan. Is that what you bought at Ginza a few days ago?"

"That looks quite expensive. Are you sure we have the budget for it?" Kasumi asked.

"Uhh... yeah," Nabiki said. She wandered away from the kitchen in a daze. She automatically walked back to her room out of habit. Once inside, she started to pace back and forth in thought.

There was always the chance that Ranma would be back for dinner. However, she knew he wouldn't be. At some level she had already known about his work at the hostess club. She had 1:2 odds that Ranma would be back by dinner if he left school due to a fight or under some other strange circumstance. This week he had come back for dinner on Wednesday, but not on Tuesday. Last week he had been absent on Tuesday and Friday, but had returned on Monday. The week before he had been absent on Tuesday and Friday, but had been back on Wednesday. She couldn't remember beyond that, but if she checked her records she was sure that the pattern would continue. He was absent every Tuesday and Friday, but he returned every other day.

There was the fight he had just had with Akane, too. It had been the same fight as always, so Nabiki hadn't paid any real attention to it. Now that she did, though, it was highly suspicious. There was no way that Akane could hit Ranma if he were actually fighting for real. Their skill gap was too large. However, she had managed to hit him out of the school towards the southeast, which coincidentally happened to be towards Ginza. Ranma must have provoked Akane into the argument, and then manipulated the fight until Akane finally hit him that direction. It gave him an excuse as to why he wasn't present in the afternoon, due to wanting to avoid Akane, and it gave him a head start on his trip.

Anger surged. He'd tricked her.

He had tricked her.

That lazy, crude, stupid, boorish, vulgar lout had tricked her. Her. Nabiki. The mercenary ice queen of Furinkan. The girl who prided herself on being smarter, harder-working, and just plain better than everybody else. The girl who used her brains, instead of the dumb muscles that her sister and everybody else in the Ranma-chasing squad favored.

And he had tricked her.

In a way, she was impressed. She didn't think the buffoon had it in him to do so. Never mind that he had once tricked Ryouga into thinking he was his fiancee. The eternally lost boy was as muscle-brained as all the other martial artists. Never mind that he had once tricked Akane into thinking he was Ryouga's sister. Akane had always had more passion than sense, common or otherwise. Akane and Ryouga were naive and easy to fool. Nabiki would know. She had done so before. Multiple times.

But Nabiki was better than that. She actually watched people. She actually paid attention. Ranma's bluffing couldn't fool an eight-year-old child. She knew this. Just a few weeks after that incident with the so-called Hibiki Yoiko, Nabiki had watched dumbfounded as Ranma had spent hours passing a joker back and forth against the Gambler King. So how could he hav...

Nabiki froze in place.

Something about that Gambler King fight nagged at Nabiki. Something was missing. What had actually happened in that duel?

Nabiki and the others in her family, along with numerous children, had watched in utter disbelief as Ranma and the Gambler King traded a joker back and forth for hours. The duel had escalated, with the Gambler King doing ever more drastic forms of cheating which Akane had interrupted time and again. Eventually, Ranma had given a heartfelt speech full of passion which had convinced everybody how much the fight had meant to him and how they should have a fair fight without any cheating. This had led the Gambler King to propose a single final game. Ranma had then himself cheated and won the duel.

But wait. Nobody had actually seen him cheat. Nobody had caught him. The only way they had known he had cheated in the end was because he admitted it much later. For that matter, that passionate speech he had given to convince everybody that the fight was important to him had to have been false, too. After all, he had turned around and cheated his way to victory immediately afterwards.

It all suddenly clicked into place.

Ranma actually did know how to lie!

It was so clear in retrospect. It wasn't like there weren't numerous examples. He had convinced Ryouga and Akane that he was Yoiko. He had convinced Kuno that he sincerely wanted to date him several times, such as to get a wish with the Wishbringer Sword. He had tricked her whole family that he had destroyed the packet of Instant Jusenkyo Powder during the fight with the Dojo Destroyer. He had convinced Happousai numerous times that he was an innocent girl to lure him into doing something. He had managed not only to hide from his mother for several months and convince her that he was Tendo Ranko, he had managed to get everybody to help conspire to trick her into thinking Kumon Ryu was her son.

Of course, each and every one of his lies was obvious once you knew the truth. If you knew that it was Ranma in disguise, then his disguise as Ryouga's fiancee was easy to spot. If you knew that he was Ranko Tendo, then it was easy to realize that somehow Ranko always appeared whenever Nodoka had thought she had found Ranma. However, in the middle of things, it was so easy to get caught up in the story and be tricked. Nabiki had had personal experience, from that Gambler King fight. In hindsight, it was clear that Ranma had palmed the card and cheated his way to victory. However, it was only clear in hindsight with knowledge of the truth.

And now that she knew Ranma was Nadeshiko, it was easy to see through the suddenly transparent lie.

Nabiki was impressed. There was more to the uneducated lout than she had thought. The only question that remained was what to do about it. Would she act like a member of the Kuno family who, when faced with something which didn't fit their world-view, would turn a blind eye and continue to live in the fake fantasy they found more comfortable? Or would she be like Nodoka and chase the thread of truth wherever it led?

In the end, it wasn't even close. She was nothing like the Kunos. Nabiki was not delusional. She would find the truth, and she would expose him. Ranma would rue the day he had tried to pull one over on Nabiki. She would show him off to everybody, most especially to his mother. The seppuku pledge might be null and void, but there was no doubt Nodoka would make Ranma's life very miserable once she found out. And Happousai, too. He would get a thrill out of knowing of Ranma's double life. Not to mention the reaction in Flare, and from everybody else in Ginza. Nabiki would see him thrown out on the streets.

Ranma had tricked her. And he would pay.

Nabiki grabbed her camera and a couple rolls of film, and then she stormed out of the room. She would get hard evidence of him entering the hostess club. She would even pay for the expedited photograph development, just so she could distribute the pictures tonight. Her revenge would be worth it.

"I have some things I need to do. I've got to track down a stupid martial artist. I'll be back later tonight," Nabiki called out.

"Are you going to be back by dinner?" Kasumi asked.

"I'm not sure. If not, I'll just get dinner myself," Nabiki said. She then stalked out of the Tendo home and into the afternoon.

The familiar background of Nerima barely even registered as Nabiki hurried through it to the nearest Tokyo Metro station. The anger coursing through her pushed out all other thoughts except for her pending vengeance.

The train was crowded, as it always was at this hour. Nabiki held her wallet close. It would be far too easy for a petty thief to snatch it and then flee a closing train door. Crime was rare in Tokyo, but it was present, and there was no reason to take any unnecessary risks.

Ginza was a major destination for a good portion of traffic, so it was easy to go with the flow of people and get out onto the open platform when she arrived. Once there, she was safe. The station was busy, but there was no risk of getting swept to the next traffic stop by accident.

She arrived outside Flare at 16:40. She took an unobtrusive position loitering against a wall on the other side of the street and calibrated her camera's focus for the distance to the front door. She would focus her camera more after that first picture had been taken, but she would only have a few seconds and wanted to be sure she would get at least one usable picture. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for Ranma to arrive.

Time ticked by slowly, as it always did whenever she was on a stakeout waiting for the perfect shot. Minutes would pass by in what felt like hours. She didn't let it distract her as she scanned back and forth across the crowd. She kept a particular lookout for the familiar red hair, but she didn't limit herself to only that. She couldn't discount the possibility that he would arrive in male form just to thwart any pursuers. She made sure to keep an eye out for both a taller male Ranma as well as a shorter female one.

After what felt like far too long, Nabiki continued to scan the area. She had a great deal of experience with how time felt dilated whenever boredom interfered, and she had no desire to miss her shot. She continued to watch. When more than far-too-long had come and gone, Nabiki continued to wait. Eventually, after another period of too-long had passed by, she finally took a glance at her watch.

The time showed 17:50. It was long past when Nadeshiko should have started her shift. Somehow Nabiki had missed her chance.

She mentally kicked herself. She had kept such close watch. She wasn't sure how she could possibly have missed him. She had seen each and every one of the numerous men walk in to Flare, one at a time, and none of them had been Ranma.

That last thought stuck. All men. No women. Each of them had to be a customer. But then where were the hostesses? If none of them entered through the front door, then there must be a service entrance.

She suddenly felt quite foolish. Of course, there had to be a service entrance. You wouldn't want a customer to be confronted with cases of sake awaiting delivery, nor would you want them to see a hostess walking in through the front door herself. It would ruin the catered illusion of perfection.

Nabiki pushed off against the wall and crossed the street. Flare had buildings attached to both of its sides, but there was a side street to an alley a few buildings over. She hurried to investigate.

The alley was far less sanitized than the main streets of Ginza. The area had a gray dampness to it, and a vaguely organic smell permeated the atmosphere. She could feel it clinging to her skin. There was a shallow pool of unidentified liquid lining the building along one wall, and against the other side of the alley were a few wooden boxes haphazardly stacked up next to some stairs leading downward. There were a couple of windows to the buildings which lined the alley, but they were small things covered with years of grime rather than the huge crystal-clear displays lining the shops of the main streets. The hum of air conditioner compressors filled the air and provided a din of background noise as omnipresent as the sound of cicadas in season.

Nabiki counted the doors as she walked past them. After she passed by four of them she stopped and looked up. It was the back entrance to Flare. The door was elevated off the ground by a stair step, like all the doors in the alley. She tried turning the doorknob, but it was locked. As expected. It couldn't have been that easy. It never was.

She had missed her window of opportunity. Rather, she had missed her window of opportunity to catch Ranma as he entered. He still had to leave, and she could catch him then. She would only need to wait a couple of hours to have her revenge. A few lamps lined the alley, including one above the door just off to the side. It would be dark, but once they were lit they would probably provide enough light for a photograph. There was also the flash of her camera as well, if she needed it. If anything, getting a picture in the dark evening might be easier. The alley was linear and fairly long, so hiding or remaining unnoticed would be hard in the open daylight. An evening ambush when Ranma left would be far simpler to execute.

First, though, it was time for dinner.

No. First, it was time to confirm Ranma's presence in the hostess club. She walked back to the main streets of Ginza and crossed several blocks before she found a pay phone. Once she did, she dialed the number which was starting to become familiar to her.

"Hello, this is Flare, how may I help you?" a woman asked. It was a different voice than Yuka's.

Nabiki dropped her voice into as deep a register as she could force it and asked, "Yes, I was wondering if Sakura-chan was working tonight."

"Yes, she is, but she is with a customer right now. Would you like me to have her call you when she is available?"

"No, thank you. I'll just come by when I can," Nabiki said. It was better to not give Ranma any hint that something was wrong.

"Okay, thank you very much. We hope to see you soon."

Nabiki hung up. Now it was time for dinner.

She ate at the first fast food restaurant she passed by on the way back to Flare. It was four-times more expensive than what Kasumi would have spent preparing dinner, and it wasn't nearly half as good. Still, it was edible, which was more than what she could say for some of the things her younger sister cooked. Regardless, the waste of yen was another thing Nabiki blamed on Ranma. Revenge would be so sweet.

Nabiki intentionally ate slowly and in a relaxed manner. If she was going to have to spend yen, then she was going to get as much value out of it as she could. It was far more comfortable lounging in a restaurant than loitering around in the streets, and she still had hours to wait. She figured that if the restaurant really wanted her to leave, then they would ask. If they never asked her, then she had no obligation to leave.

The air was cooling and the last vestiges of sunlight were rapidly disappearing in the sky when she finished dinner. It made much less difference in Ginza than it would have made in a place like Nerima. A plethora of neon signs kept the streets brightly lit in artificial colors. The garish clash of reds and oranges was awful to look at, but made it easy to retrace the path back to the hostess club.

She returned to the alley and the back entrance she had examined a few hours earlier. It looked far different than when she had seen it in the sunlight. Unlike the neon-shaded main streets of Ginza, the alley was now only lit by a few dim lamp lights. She could still make out the boxes, but the wide puddle of liquid was now nearly invisible. Its presence was only given away by its smell and the lights reflected on its surface. She gave it a wide berth as she passed.

It appeared that the camera flash would be necessary. She had overestimated the amount of light the lamps would give off. She could see decently enough, but human eyes were far more darkness-tolerant than camera lenses were. Any photograph would need a flash. That would definitely give away the fact that Ranma had been caught. In Nabiki's opinion, that was an advantage. Ranma would be able to experience the anticipation of ruin as well, not only the perdition itself.

Based on the position of the back door, the direction it opened, and the direction of the light, Nabiki determined the best place to wait for the shot would be just below a particular lamp mounted on the wall. She picked up one of the wooden boxes, moved the makeshift chair into an appropriate position, and then took a seat upon it. She picked up her camera and refocused it. She took a sample picture with her camera to ensure that everything was properly set up, and then leaned back. All she could do now was wait for Ranma to emerge.

Time once again ticked by slowly in anxious anticipation. The noisy street traffic of Ginza was barely audible despite it being only one building away. The single siren she heard blaring could have been from another district for how distant it sounded. The whole area felt deathly quiet for a place in bustling Tokyo, and the whole alley held its breath waiting for what would happen next.

Nabiki didn't worry half as much about missing Ranma in this quiet alley as compared to the busy main streets of Ginza. There was no crowd to distract her in this setting, and nowhere Ranma could hide if he somehow evaded her initial notice. She only waited one period of far-too-long before she averted her gaze to check her watch. The hands were hard to see in the dim light, but it appeared that the hour-hand hovered somewhere around the 9 and the minute-hand hovered somewhere around the 12. It could have been anytime between 20:50 to 21:10 and it would have looked much the same. Nabiki re-gripped her camera and re-checked the focus through the lens. She was poised to act the moment Ranma opened the door.

"Well, what do we have here?"

A man's voice caused Nabiki to lower her camera and turn to look at its source. She could make out the general shape of three surly men swaggering towards her. They had matching leather jackets which seemed to glow black in the dim lamplight. The occasional gleam of metal could be seen reflected off the nose of one of the men, and off the lip of another.

"It looks to me like this poor little thing wanted to be a hostess and got kicked out."

"Aww... that's too bad. Why don't you come with us, little girl? You can hostess for us. We could use some company."

All of a sudden, Nabiki realized exactly where she was. She was in a dark alley in the middle of Ginza, far away from Nerima.

And nobody else knew that.

The major street, full of bright neon lights and passing crowds of watching witnesses, was only a block away. A full block away, through dim light and looming shadows. Thoughts of Nadeshiko, Sakura, and Ranma vanished. Years of warnings about how dangerous the city could be whirled around her head and started crowding out all other thoughts.

Nabiki tried to keep her wits about her in her suddenly racing head. Away. She had to get away. No sudden moves. Nothing suspicious. Just get back to the safety of the crowd of spectators.

"No, thank you. I was just here to... get something," Nabiki said as she clutched her camera in her hands. "That's right. I just got it here. My friends are waiting for me. I'd better go back to them before they miss me," Nabiki said as calmly as she could. She started to walk back down the alley away from the three men as fast as she could without actually appearing to be in a hurry.

A sharp rap of metal on metal made her jump. She spun around at the sound and saw where one of the men had slammed a stairway rail with something. He spun his hand a bit and let the blade of the knife he held catch the light and gleam in the darkness.

"Now, you look like a smart girl. These places here, they're dangerous, you see. Some of the guys around here... well... they're liable to do some bad things to a girl all alone. You know... like cut her... or maybe worse." The man twisted the knife back and forth as he walked toward Nabiki. Her eyes locked on to the shine of metal and she stood paralyzed in fright. "Now, you're lucky I found you here. I'm not like one of those men. I'll protect you. I'll even treat you to a drink. We'll have a great time. Me and my buddies just want to keep you safe, see? It's much safer to be in a group. You wouldn't want to meet one of those bad people and get hurt, right?"

Nabiki was hyperventilating by this point. The threat was obvious and oppressive. She could just end up as a missing person report never to be seen again. It was hard to think of anything through the mind-numbing panic which had enveloped her. The only thing she saw through the pinprick of focus was the gleam of metal in the man's hand.

She fumbled around for something. Anything. Even just the camera in her hands. She raised it, closed her eyes, and clicked the shutter.

The light of the camera flashed through the dark alley and directly into the faces of the three men. Even as she triggered the flash, she turned and sprinted for the main road. It was only a few dozen meters away.

There were three inarticulate shouts of complaint from behind her, but she didn't dare turn around. A few seconds. All she needed was a few seconds. Then she would be safe.

A heavy weight grabbed the back of her calf and tripped her. She fell straight forward onto her face, splashing into some smelly liquid. Her camera went skittering forward across the ground. She looked behind her, and through the pain she saw that the man who had been threatening her with the knife earlier had grabbed her leg. She kicked with that foot to try to dislodge him, but he held firm.

"Now that was a really stupid thing to do," the man said. He pulled her backwards, through the pool of liquid, as he himself climbed to a kneeling position.

Panic surrounded Nabiki, and she was acting purely on instinct. She wildly flailed with her free foot, but the man caught it with his other hand. She reflexively continued to try to kick, but both of her legs were now held fast and her struggles were ineffectual.

"It looks like you have a handful there, Kiyoshi-san. I think this girl needs to be taught some manners," one of the other men said.

"That's just what I was thinking. Naughty girls need to be punished," Kiyoshi said. "What say you, Nobu-san? Would you like to do the honors?"

"Nah, I think it's Masaru-san's turn this time," Nobu said.

Nabiki regretted all of the times she had skipped out on the martial arts lessons her father had tried to teach her. She had always thought that they were beneath her. Her younger sister was a dumb ox to waste all that time just getting sweaty, but Nabiki was better than that. She used her brains when her sister only had brute strength to rely on. Only now, the image of metal edges and pierced men filled her thoughts and prevented her from thinking anything besides the overwhelming panic which had robbed her of any self-control.

She knew she should do something. Anything. But she couldn't get herself to move. She thought she wanted to scream, but couldn't make her voice heard. She thought she wanted to punch him away, but she couldn't get her arms to move. She found herself wanting, hoping, begging for something to help her, even as she couldn't actually do anything herself.

"Oh my. What are you four doing?" the gentle voice of Nadeshiko cut through the commotion. Even as she shouted, her voice still carried a demure grace.

The red-haired girl was standing just outside the back door to Flare. She wore a silk purple dress with a floral pattern printed on it, complete with matching purple shoes and purple eyeshadow. Nabiki was certain she was Ranma, but she still had a hard time reconciling that with the image of femininity in front of her. Nadeshiko looked like a picture of polished poise who just happened to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"You should just turn around and go back inside. There's nothing to see here," Kiyoshi said.

"I think you had best leave her alone and depart this place," Nadeshiko said.

Kiyoshi jerked his head over in the direction of Nadeshiko, which caused Nobu to start walking over in her direction. The man drew a knife of his own as he walked towards the hostess. He said, "Now, why don't you calm down. We're just having a little fun."

"Please leave, or I shall summon the police," Nadeshiko said.

Nobu reached out and grabbed Nadeshiko's arm with his free hand. He then pulled her down the stair towards him. He said, "There's no reason for you to do that, little girl. There's enough here for you, too."

"I really wish you hadn't done that," Nadeshiko sighed.

Nabiki didn't even see what happened next. All she saw was that Nobu's knife was looming menacingly in the face of Nadeshiko, and then the next thing she knew, the man was being thrown over Nadeshiko's shoulder. She jabbed into the man's neck, and then left him behind on the ground.

"Why you!" Masaru shouted. He lunged forward at Nadeshiko, only to end up being tossed to the ground next to his companion. One neck jab later, he was likewise left behind like so much debris.

"How about you, sir? Will you please wait patiently while I summon the police?" Nadeshiko still spoke with her demure formality, but it carried an edge of steel within it.

"You... you monster!" Kiyoshi shouted. He shoved Nabiki down to push himself upright before he sprinted away.

Nadeshiko gracefully reached over and picked up one of the wooden boxes next to her. She bounced it in her left hand once, and then threw it through the murky darkness at the fleeing man. It hit his legs and caused him to trip to the ground. She then jumped up, bounced off a wall, and dived straight at the man. He was still trying to climb to his feet when she tackled him to the ground with both of her knees. One final neck jab, and it was over.

"Are you alright?" Nadeshiko asked Nabiki, and then offered her hand to the fallen girl.

Nabiki grabbed the hand and pulled herself upright. With the immediate danger over, the crushing paralysis departed Nabiki's body. She clung to the hand, and then pulled herself into the shoulder of the shorter girl. She trembled and cried, as if to wash away her fear with the tears streaming from her eyes.

"There, there. It's all over now," Nadeshiko soothed. "Come on. Let's get you inside."

Nadeshiko led the unresisting Nabiki back to the door from which she had arrived. She knocked, the door opened, and she guided her into Flare.

* * *

Last Updated: September 16, 2018


	4. 4: Who is Nabiki?

Chapter 4: Who is Nabiki?

A man held the door open as Nadeshiko led Nabiki in through the back entrance of Flare. He was middle-aged, and he wore a black suit over a red shirt and gray tie. His shoes had been polished to the point where they reflected the numerous lights around them like large stars in the night sky. He also stood a fair bit taller than Nabiki, and he practically towered over Nadeshiko despite the extra height her shoes provided.

"Sakura-san? Welcome back. Did you forget something? Who is this?" the man asked. He sniffed his nose, and then added, "And what's that smell?"

"Kugimiya-san, some men attacked this young lady here in the alley. I'm going to help her get cleaned up, and then I will be borrowing one of the booths. Can you please have Mama-san call the police? The three men who attacked her are unconscious in the alley. And please ask Mama-san to not mention my name, if it wouldn't be too much trouble," Nadeshiko said.

"Wh.. what? Understood. I'll do so right away," Kugimiya said, and then walked towards the front of the hostess club at a very deliberate speed.

The well-lit interior of Flare exposed the large stain of unknown liquid that Nabiki had been dragged through in the alley. It covered the front of her clothes and squished unpleasantly as she walked. The acrid smell reeked of earthly dampness. She kept her back slumped forward to minimize contact with the clammy substance, and she was reluctant to even move as each step exposed her skin to new feelings of grimy filth. A matching, smaller stain was visible on Nadeshiko's silk dress where Nabiki had clung to her earlier.

Nadeshiko led Nabiki through the relatively plain back hallways of the hostess club, and then pushed open a door to one of the rooms. The decor inside was very similar to the rest of Flare. The wooden panels and dark curtains along the walls absorbed the plentiful light and maintained the characteristic sophisticated atmosphere of the hostess club. What made the room stand apart was its layout and contents. There were several racks of dresses along one side of the room. The other side of the room had racks half-filled with more dresses, with the remainder of the space dedicated to bracelets, necklaces, shawls, and other accessories. The racks formed something of a corridor which led to the private booths at the far end of the room. The overall effect made the area look like a miniature department store.

"We should get you into some clean clothes, madam. I would lend you something of mine, but I'm afraid nothing I own would fit you. Let's see..." Nadeshiko said. She scanned the wall of clothes, and then pulled out one of the hangers. "What do you think of this?"

The dress she had selected was one of the more subdued ones on the rack. It was a dark gray pencil dress with a high neckline and short sleeves. Its precise stitching and lines gave it a mature look which would have been equally at home in an office building and a concert hall. Nabiki gave a non-committal shrug in response.

Nadeshiko reached over and casually pulled off the price tag. She said, "Please, take it. My treat. Feel free to use any of the booths to change."

Nabiki moved mechanically into one of the partitioned changing rooms and shut the door behind her. It was larger and more extravagant than she had expected. In addition to the standard full-body mirror on the wall, it also featured a plush chair and a small makeup station on the side, complete with another well-lit mirror behind the table and a sink beside it. Nabiki ignored them all as she stripped off her dirty shirt and pants. Once both had been removed from her body, she picked up a paper towel from the makeup station, wet it at the sink, and used it to wipe away as much of the stain clinging to her body as she could. She dried herself with another paper towel, and then put on the replacement dress Nadeshiko had offered her. The removal of the filth helped a great deal in letting her start to feel like she was human again.

She crumpled her dirty clothes into a ball and carried it with her as she left the changing room. Nadeshiko was already there, waiting for her. She had also changed her clothes. However, rather than the simple shirt and pants Nabiki would have expected Ranma to wear, she had changed into another dress. This one was mint green with a shawl neckline and wide belt around the waist. She had changed her shoes as well, now wearing green stiletto heels to match her dress. Even her makeup was different, with her purple eyeshadow having been replaced with an expertly applied golden shade instead. The only things she had kept the same were her glasses and her loose hair style.

"I got a bit messy as well," Nadeshiko said with a gentle smile. "If madam would like to follow me?"

Nabiki still felt shocked and disoriented, and she moved more or less automatically rather than through conscious decision. She allowed herself to be led through the hostess club and brought to a quiet alcove. She then took a seat in one of the sumptuous leather chairs. Unlike the time she had sat in one on Tuesday, she felt none of its luxurious comfort.

"Feel free to relax and take your time to recover. I'm sure the police will be here soon. I promise that nobody will disturb you until then," Nadeshiko said. She then turned to leave.

Nabiki quickly, reflexively, reached out and grabbed the hostess's sleeve. She had no desire to be alone after what she had just endured. The hostess club was certainly safer than the grungy alley had been, but that did nothing to dispel the visions of gleaming facial piercings and flashing knives.

Nadeshiko hesitated for only a moment before she turned back to Nabiki and smoothly took a seat next to her. She reached under the table in front of them with her free hand and pulled out two bottles, two glasses, and two buckets. She used some tongs from one of the buckets to transfer some ice from one of the buckets into both glasses. She then poured some purple liquid from one of the bottles into both glasses, and then followed it by pouring some bubbly liquid from the other bottle to join it. She finally took a glass rod from the other bucket and used it to stir both glasses.

"Here, take this," Nadeshiko said as she picked up one of the glasses and handed it to Nabiki. The rounded sounds of Nadeshiko's voice took a slight edge off the world and made it feel that much softer. "Don't worry. It's not alcoholic."

Nabiki took the glass from the hostess. She still felt a bit shaky, so she released her grip on Nadeshiko's sleeve so that she could clutch at the glass between both of her hands. She held it for a moment before raising it to her lips and taking a sip. The sweetness of the grape mixed with the tart of the carbonated water danced along her tongue in an evocative experience. It burned with a pleasant sensation which pricked her tongue, tickled her nose, and warmed her throat.

Nadeshiko had the other glass in her hand and took a matching sip. She said, "I really do enjoy grape spritzers. There's something about the addition of the bubbles. I like how they cut the sweetness of the grape juice and make it pop out." She spoke with a soothing voice in a relaxing volume and tempo. Both were at a precisely calibrated level, where Nadeshiko was clear enough and loud enough to be easily understood if Nabiki wanted to listen to her for the distraction, but quiet enough and calm enough that Nabiki could also easily ignore her if she instead wanted a bit of time to herself. After a very brief pause, Nadeshiko continued by saying, "It really mixes well with the grapes that Kyoho grows. I believe the ones used in this juice came from Shikoku. You can tell from that extra little bit of flavor in the aftertaste."

The hostess continued to fill the empty space with a regular stream of quiet small talk. She spoke briefly on the vineyards around Japan before naturally segueing to reflections on farming, to national import policy, to the economy, to the stock market, to the overall excitement of the nation, to sports. Nadeshiko paused numerous times as she drifted from topic to topic, waiting for a second or two every so often. The breaks were just long enough to give allow Nabiki a chance to interrupt and add something if she wanted to, but they were also just short enough that Nabiki never felt obligated to contribute to the conversation. She could listen, or she could talk. It was her decision what she wanted to do.

In the relaxing atmosphere, Nabiki slowly pulled her wits together and regained her composure. The trying experiences from just a few minutes ago were still there, but they felt far removed from the peaceful ambiance which surrounded her. Her hands stopped their slight trembling, and her heart resumed its normal pace.

Nadeshiko had just finished commenting on the exciting prospects of the upcoming baseball game between the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers when Nabiki took advantage of one of the numerous gaps in the monologue to ask a simple question. "Why?"

"I'm sorry. Why what?" Nadeshiko asked.

"Why are you doing this? All this?" Nabiki asked. She had been furious before. She remembered how she had wanted revenge. Now, she just felt emotionally burned out. All she wanted were some easy to understand answers.

"I thought it was the right thing to do," Nadeshiko said. "It must have been quite harrowing to be attacked by surprise like that. Nobody should be forced to go through such a thing. I'm sure it was quite an ordeal. I hope madam is feeling better now."

"No, not that. I mean why this whole Yamato Nadeshiko thing? Why are you doing this, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked.

Nadeshiko neither flinched nor startled at the question. She didn't react in any real way to it. She merely looked at Nabiki curiously, and asked, "You've said that name before. Who is this Ranma-kun of whom you keep speaking?"

"Come off it. I know you're Ranma-kun."

"I'm afraid I still don't know to whom you are referring, but I assure you that I am not this person."

"Yes, you are. Just look at that martial arts you did outside," Nabiki said. She was starting to get a bit of her edge back. All she wanted were some simple answers, and the red-haired hostess still refused to give them.

"I thought it might be wise to learn a bit of self-defense. The city can be a dangerous place. I'm quite sure madam now knows this as well as anybody else. I'm just glad I was around to help."

"I found the dress you wore on Tuesday in your closet. It was next to the red cheongsam and purple taffeta cocktail dress."

"I can't remember where I bought that dress, but there must be hundreds of them throughout the city. I'm sure it is just a coincidence."

"And it's also just a coincidence that Ranma-kun happens to disappear after school every Tuesday and Friday and then never returns home before 9:30?" Nabiki asked incredulously. Her voice was getting louder. Nadeshiko's evasive explanations and Nabiki's inability to corner her was exceptionally frustrating.

"It sounds like this Ranma-kun person is very busy. From what I have heard of martial artists, they are always having to answer some challenge or deal with some attack. I imagine some of those can take hours to conclude. If this Ranma-kun disappears now and again, I'm afraid that that doesn't sound very suspicious to me."

"And you look exactly like Ranma-kun!"

"Please don't shout. At Flare, we pride ourselves on our privacy and discretion, and I wouldn't want to disturb the other customers," Nadeshiko said with complete composure. She hadn't raised her voice at all throughout the exchange. "As for how I appear, there are many uncanny resemblances in the world. Have I mentioned that you look just like a tour guide I once met in Sapporo?" She spoke with the same demure formality she always did. There was nothing in her voice, her posture, or anything else which triggered Nabiki to think that she was brazenly lying.

Nabiki almost retorted immediately, but she held herself in check. Letting her anger get the better of her, as Akane might, was what had gotten her into trouble the last time she had spoken with Nadeshiko. She took a deep breath, and then deliberately said, "Okay. You're right. Maybe I can't prove it. However, I know what I know, and I know I could tell everybody back in Nerima. Even if they don't believe me, you know how they are. They'll investigate and find out the truth, even if they have to tear this place apart to do it. In fact, they'll probably tear it apart regardless, just by mistake."

Silence hung in the air like a curtain around the pair. It was only interrupted by the occasional clink of ice on glass as Nadeshiko swirled her drink in her hand in contemplation. Her glass was full, which was odd because Nabiki had been sure the hostess had been drinking throughout her monologue and their subsequent discussion. Nabiki's glass was full, too. She thought back, and upon reflection realized that she had somehow already drunk three full glasses of the delicious drink. Nadeshiko had been quietly refilling them without Nabiki actively taking notice.

Nadeshiko finally broke the silence to quietly ask, "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be somebody else?" She stared off into the distance, not looking at Nabiki, or indeed at anything in particular.

"Sure. Hasn't everybody? Kids do it all the time," Nabiki said.

"I don't mean just playing around and pretending to be a princess or a robot or something. I mean, have you ever actually wondered what it would be like to be somebody else? Have you ever thought about what it would be like, for real?"

"Not really," Nabiki said.

Nadeshiko didn't respond immediately. Silence surrounded the pair for a few moments as Nadeshiko nursed the drink in her hands.

"What if you could find out?" Nadeshiko asked. She still spoke with the smooth, melodious voice she always used. "What if you didn't have to be the heir to a school of martial arts who had to accept and win every challenge any weird martial artist thought up? What if you weren't an obnoxious jerk who automatically offended everybody you met? What if you weren't the one everybody always scapegoated for everything, whether or not you were really the one at fault? What if you didn't find it easier to insult somebody than to say you loved her? What if you weren't the person everybody assumed would be the one to go rescue your friend, or your house, or your fiancee, or all of Jusendo just because you had always done so in the past? What if you didn't have a petty thief for a father who engaged you to multiple people without your knowledge, and who sold your honor for a bowl of rice and two pickles? What if you didn't live with a mother who constantly demanded you be a Man Among Men, and who drew her katana at the slightest hint of disobedience? What kind of person would you be then?"

Nabiki was stunned by Nadeshiko's confession. She had been sure that Nadeshiko was Ranma, but she hadn't thought any further about it than that simple idea. The litany of Ranma's circumstances and reasoning had overwhelmed her, and Nabiki sat in silence for several seconds while she processed it.

"So, Yamato Nadeshiko?" Nabiki finally asked in a quiet voice.

"So, Yamato Nadeshiko. It was the first name that came to mind when Mama-san asked me. They think I'm an illegal foreign worker, probably because of my hair and my eyes. It's close enough to the truth," Nadeshiko said. The admission of the false identity did nothing to change her bearing or behavior. She continued to talk in her modest dulcet voice and feminine style. "I didn't really have a goal in mind at first. I had been fighting Ryouga for some reason, and we had ended up near the ocean somehow. I was running back home through Ginza when I saw this place and thought, 'why not?'"

There was another silent lull in the conversation as Nabiki struggled to find the right words to ask her next question.

"So, is this who you are, without all that other stuff? Without the martial arts, and the fiancees, and the parents, and everything else? You're a hostess in a hostess club?" Nabiki hesitantly asked. She could have imagined saying those exact same words just two hours earlier with laughter, or derision, or greed, or any number of other connotations in her voice. However, after all she had been through, and after what Nadeshiko had just said, her question had instead become a quiet query of genuine curiosity.

"Possibly. I do seem to be quite good at it," Nadeshiko said. A touch of Ranma's normal bravado was just barely noticeable behind her polite speech.

Silence reigned once more as Nabiki found herself lost in thought. She had asked the question of Nadeshiko, but she wasn't sure she could answer it of herself.

Who was Nabiki?

She had power. She had no friends. She had respect. She had no qualms. She had yen. She had no sympathy. She had fun. She had no shame. She had an international business. She could inspire fear in those who crossed her. She was the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan.

However, was that who Nabiki was, underneath all of the expectations, labels, and habits she had collected over her lifetime?

What if she could be somebody else? What would that be like?

What if instead of international sales of handkerchiefs to France, she instead spent her time on the student council fighting against the numerous absurd decrees of the principal? What if instead of selling gossip on the rumor market, she instead investigated stories to publish in a school newspaper? What if instead of reading business magazines all the time, she instead practiced her family's school of martial arts? What if instead of having to harden her heart whenever she was faced with a sad situation, she instead generously helped the distressed person? What if instead of being a bystander always trying to find the opportunity in an incident, she instead was in the middle of the excitement herself? What if instead of the endless search for yen with Business Associates, she instead wasted her time with actual friends she could trust with secrets she would never tell her family?

What if instead of being the older sister to a girl engaged to a vulgar martial artist who changed genders with a splash of water, she instead was herself engaged to a strange person she apparently only barely knew?

What if?

What would it be like, to just drop everything and reset it all? Ranma was exploring the idea of leaving his honor, his dysfunctional family, and his own hard-earned reputation behind. Could Nabiki herself leave it all behind, too? Her home, her family, her hard-earned reputation, and everything. Was she foolish enough, or brave enough, to try? Did she even want to?

The silence continued to drag on.

"So..." Nabiki eventually said. She hesitated, afraid for the answer. "... do you like Yamato Nadeshiko?" She wasn't sure which answer she was more afraid to hear.

"Well, I don't like the name, but it's a bit too late to do anything about that now," Nadeshiko said. "Besides that, though, I don't know. Somewhat. It feels like running away... but... Everything is always Ranma's fault, right? If a dojo destroyer shows up, then Ranma must answer him. If a demonic tree attacks, then it's Ranma's responsibility to exorcise it. If a boy is wasting away at a hospital, then Ranma is the one who needs to get him to take his medicine. If Shampoo brings some lunch, then Ranma is the one who is encouraging her. If the panda makes yet another engagement, then Ranma must marry her. However, he must also marry Akane, and Ukyou, and everybody else.

"Things are much easier for Nadeshiko. She isn't forced to do anything she doesn't want to. She has friends who support her. She gets to live her life without waking up to worries about what's going to go wrong today, and how will she fix it. She gets to have fun earning all that yen by convincing all those men to buy things."

"Yen? How much yen?" Nabiki asked. The question was out of her mouth before she had even realized it.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a greedy person?

"I usually get paid approximately 100000 yen a night, on average," Nadeshiko said.

"100000 yen?" Nabiki gasped. Her eyes boggled. That was two significant digits more than she had expected. That explained where all of that clothing had come from. If Nadeshiko was earning 200000 yen a week, then the cost of a dress here and a swimsuit there was little more than a rounding error.

"Usually. Sometimes I get more. I think the most I ever earned in a single night was something like 450000 yen."

Nabiki's brain shut off. That was the most money she had heard of short of a mortgage or the 10-yen duel she had had with Kinnosuke Kasha. This had a key difference, too. Acquiring debt was easy. Acquiring yen was much harder. She only had one question.

"How?"

"The blue eyes and red hair helps quite a bit. Lots of men like the exotic foreigner look. Besides that, it's just practice. Lots and lots of practice," Nadeshiko said.

Nabiki knew how fast the redhead learned martial arts techniques, but she had thought that that ability had only applied to martial arts. Apparently, it was more generalized than that. The idea was frightful to consider.

"In that case, you can start paying us rent and stop your freeloading any time you want," Nabiki said.

"I thought I was paying. That is the reason madam is always blackmailing me, is it not?"

Blackmail. Nabiki never liked to think of it that way. The word sounded so ugly. However, if she were being honest with herself, it was what she did all the time. Truthfully, some of that money did go to supporting the Tendo household. However, not all of it did. She didn't want to go into detail about how much went to which category.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a selfish person?

Nadeshiko said, "If you are interested, I could introduce you to Mama-san. I'm sure she would let you try hostessing in Flare for a while to see how it goes. I think you would do quite well."

"No thanks. I'm not like you. I couldn't just go around sleeping with men for money," Nabiki said. The money might be nice, but there was no way Nabiki would ever consider selling her body like that.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a moral person?

"I don't know what your impression of being a hostess is, but I assure you that it is nothing like that," Nadeshiko said. Even when she was being reproachful, she maintained the friendly and receptive voice she always used. It was not unlike the way Kasumi scolded people. "Flare is a strictly no-touching club. It's just talking, singing, drinking, smoking, and lots and lots of listening. I do the occasional tea ceremony from time to time, as well. Being a good hostess is all about understanding the customer and giving him what he needs."

"And manipulating him out of as much of his yen as possible," Nabiki said. The child of a frog was a frog. Regardless of who else she was or was not, Nadeshiko was the child of Saotome Genma.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a cynical person?

"Like I said, I think you would be good at it."

Nabiki smirked. She had never thought about it before, but the way Nadeshiko had described the job did make it sound as though it would be a good fit for her. The money was certainly right. She said, "I'll need to think about it."

"Of course."

"So what happens now, now that I know all of... this...?" Nabiki waved her hand in the universal sign which signified everything all around them.

"For now, we wait for the police to arrive. Then you will answer their questions and do your best to not mention Yamato Nadeshiko. Maybe Saotome Ranma stumbled by the area; that is the kind of thing that would happen to him. After that, we will return to the Tendo house. I am sure everybody is quite concerned about your absence right now. Don't worry. I am also quite sure that they are all blaming me."

Nabiki winced, both at the reminder of the trouble that she would be in, as well as the fact that it was probably true that Ranma would be blamed for it. It was the script. Somehow, it would all turn out to be Ranma's fault. It always was.

"And what about tomorrow?" Nabiki asked.

"I have no idea."

After a short period of time, the maitre d' Nabiki had met on Tuesday came by their booth to retrieve Nadeshiko. She wore a different shirt and suit, but she looked every bit as sharp as when she had ensured that Nabiki had been expelled from Flare. The maitre d' led the hostess away and out of earshot. Nadeshiko returned a few seconds later and in turn escorted Nabiki to an office on the side of the hostess club. Inside were two members of the police who took Nabiki's statement as to what had happened.

Nabiki told them the truth. She said that she had been attacked in the alley by three men, whom she described as best she could remember through her hazy memory. She mentioned that when they had attacked her, she had tried to use her camera to blind them and escape, but it had not worked. She concluded her testimony by explaining how Saotome Ranma, a master martial artist engaged to marry one of the Tendo sisters, had happened upon the scene and had subsequently saved her.

The police showed her the camera they had retrieved from the alley, which to her horror had a large crack through the center of the lens. Nabiki confirmed it was hers, whereupon they confiscated the film as evidence but returned the camera itself to her. They confiscated her dirty clothes as well. After that, Nabiki was free to go.

She found Nadeshiko waiting for her outside the office. The hostess said, "This way, madam. It's expected for the hostesses to always leave by the back door, unless you would prefer to meet me outside in front?"

"No, that's okay. I'll follow you," Nabiki said. She let herself be led back through the hostess club and back to the alley where she had just been attacked. It felt as though it had been weeks since that assault, rather than the mere hour it had actually been. A slight shudder of worry disturbed her, but that was foolish. There was no way her escort would let her come to any harm. She had already proved that.

"This is a bit embarrassing to ask, but do you know the way to the nearest Tokyo Metro station?" Nadeshiko asked.

"You don't know?"

"I usually run here," Nadeshiko said. "I know Nerima is that way, if you would prefer to travel on foot."

"You run. From Ginza to Nerima. You run," Nabiki said. She rolled her eyes, although the expression was lost in the shadows of the alley. "Fine, follow me. The station's this way."

They had only just entered the station when Nadeshiko said, "Please wait here for a moment. I need to change." She then walked into the nearby public restroom they had been passing.

Nabiki was tempted to just go on alone, but after the escapade she had just been through, she had no desire to be by herself. Rationally she knew nothing would happen to her here. Tokyo was a remarkably safe city. Any crime, such as the attack she had just been subjected to, was an extraordinarily unlucky fluke. Moreover, while the station no longer had the crushing crowds of rush hour, it was still well-lit with numerous people walking around.

None of that mattered to her beating heart or her twitching nerves. Emotions were always irrational. It wasn't as if the fact that Ranma could destroy a tiger with one hand tied behind his back prevented him from fleeing at the mere sight of a passing house cat. She consoled herself that if she really wanted to, she could have proceeded on her own. She just had no reason to, and it would have been incredibly rude to her companion, too.

She checked her watch. It read 22:30. She was going to get home late. Nadeshiko was certainly right. Her family would be in a panic by now. It was long after the time her father and Genma would have sent Ranma to go out searching for her, except that Ranma was absent, too. She wondered what everybody in the Tendo home was thinking.

About a minute later, Ranma came back out of the public restroom. He was still female, but was wearing his more familiar silk red shirt and black pants. His hands were behind his head as he re-braided his hair into his characteristic pigtail with an ease which spoke of frequent practice.

It wasn't merely his physical appearance which had changed. Ranma's voice had also taken on the harsh tone and masculine vernacular which he typically used when female. He said, "The makeup's the hard part. It's damn near impossible to get it all without a mirror and water. Last time I tried, Akane thought I'd snuck out to see Kodachi or something."

Of course the makeup would be the hard part. Not the changing of clothes in under a minute; Ranma probably had some kind of Martial Arts Clothes Changing technique which would let him swap clothes in the blink of an eye. Not locating a shirt and pants while disposing of a dress and shoes without a trace; Ranma probably had some kind of Martial Arts Hidden Weapons technique which would let him hide an entire wardrobe on his person without any visible sign. It was enough to make Nabiki regret having given up martial arts all those years ago. Back then she had easily matched Akane's skill. If she had continued her training, then she might have been able to use such convenient techniques herself.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a master of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts?

Now that Ranma had changed and was characteristically Ranma again, Nabiki wasn't sure how to proceed. Up until this evening it had been easy. It was familiar practice to dismiss the uneducated, thoughtless, hyper-macho, arrogant caricature she had pictured in her head. She could tease the dumb churl, get a bit of yen here and there, but mostly disregard him.

That was before she had discovered that he was a much more complicated character than she had thought. He had a whole other life to him. He was smarter and more resourceful than she had imagined. He also was apparently rich. He had nowhere near the wealth of the Kuno family, but he was earning more than anybody else in the Tendo household was, and that was with working only eight hours a week. Moreover, he had none of the obsession and insanity that was endemic to the Kuno family.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was the true fiancee of Saotome Ranma?

Nabiki was unsure how to actually interact with this new Ranma, so she didn't. She instead led him in silence through the station to the Ginza line. Once on the train itself, she gazed out the window, and across the carriage, and at the advertisements, and anywhere except at Ranma.

The trains were as punctual as they always were. They arrived in Nerima just after 23:10.

Ranma took the lead as they walked through the quiet roads. Nabiki had never seen it so dark. Street lamps appeared only every few blocks, and the large expanses of blackness between them were only lit by the occasional headlights of passing cars. The lights from the rest of Tokyo reflecting from the sky provided enough illumination to avoid tripping, but they did not provide enough to see anything beyond vague shapes. The streets she had walked through as a child had transformed in appearance to unfamiliar trenches of darkness which held knives in waiting.

Nabiki stayed close to Ranma.

In a way, the whole area felt a lot like Ranma himself did. Intellectually, everything was the same as it had been in the morning. Everything looked recognizable, but it didn't feel the same. There was the unfamiliar building which housed people and stuff used to put out fires, the unfamiliar store in the easy-to-find place which sold foods and drinks, and the dark house of that lady who liked to spend her time drawing funny pictures. She saw them all from a different perspective, and none of the cues of familiarity triggered. Nabiki felt as if she needed to consciously make her way forward, rather than being able to rely familiar habits to lead her home.

Nabiki was still in an exhausted trance when Ranma stopped in front of a gate. She was about to ask why he had stopped, but then she realized that it was the entrance to her house. She hadn't even recognized her own home.

Soun was pacing back and forth in the entrance hall when Ranma opened the front door. The moment the door opened, Soun immediately shouted, "Ranma-kun! Where have you been! Nabiki's gone missing! You've got to find her!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I already found her," Ranma said.

"I'm home," Nabiki said. Akane ran forward from the family room. Behind her was a briskly moving Kasumi, followed by the Saotomes.

Akane asked, "Do you have any idea what time it is? Where were you? We were so worried. I bet it's all Ranma's fault. You were asking about him before you left. What'd that pervert do to you this time?"

"Why'd you got to blame me? What'd I do?" Ranma protested.

"Do you even need to ask? Every time something weird happens it always comes back to you. What's the story this time? Some island prince kidnap her or something?"

"You got another new dress, Nabiki? Are you sure we can afford all that?" Kasumi asked.

Nabiki looked down. She had completely forgotten about her clothing change. She said, "It's fine. Ranma-kun bought it for me."

"I'm so proud of you," Nodoka said. "It's very manly of you to collect mistresses."

"A mistress?" Akane asked. "What exactly were you two doing?"

"It's not like that! Why'd you gotta be so uncute all the time?" Ranma asked.

It was always the same script whenever there was an argument. Blame, protest and insult, counter-insult, squabble, fight. If any of the parents was around, then they would either egg them on or try too hard to push them together. It would end when Akane got in the last word in some way or another, and the status quo would be restored until the next time.

Nabiki was too exhausted to care. She simply left the argument behind and wandered up to her room to get some new clothes before going to the bath. She wouldn't have been surprised if nobody had actually seen her leave the entrance hall. She was just the most recent trigger of the script, rather than being an integral part of it.

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was a bystander?

Right after Nabiki had closed the door to the bathroom, she heard a, "Ranma, you idiot!" It was immediately followed by a thud which resounded through the whole house.

And the status quo had been restored.

* * *

Saturday began far too early. Nabiki had never been a morning person, and the irritating sounds of fighting from the courtyard were not helping her surly mood. She wanted nothing more than to pull her pillow over her head and go back to sleep.

"Nabiki-chan. It's time to get up," Kasumi prompted her. She couldn't help but notice her sweet voice vaguely echoed the same unconditional acceptance within Nadeshiko's voice.

"Okay," Nabiki sighed. She groaned. With great difficulty, she pushed herself into a sitting position.

The sunlight brought everything back. Everything had snapped into place. It was the same familiar Nerima she had grown up with and had known her whole life. The vague distorted world of shadows and suspicions from Friday night had vanished with no more trace than a passing nightmare. Only the vague memory of the differences remained. It was almost enough to make her believe that everything had just been a wild dream.

However, she knew better than that. She was not like the Kunos. She was not delusional. Hanging in her closet was a dark gray dress, fine enough and sleek enough that she would have been happy to wear it to a job interview, if not to a meeting with a board of directors. There was the other piece of indisputable physical evidence as well. Her broken camera now had a cracked lens. It rendered the device useless, being only capable of capturing distorted mosaics instead of the actual truth of reality. Both stood as undeniable testimony that Friday hadn't been some surreal illusion.

Ranma had a second life as Yamato Nadeshiko. Ranma was rich. Ranma had saved her life. Ranma was downstairs fighting Genma as if nothing had changed in the past day, as if Nabiki's world hadn't been shattered.

A night of sleep had done nothing to clear Nabiki's head. She still didn't know what she was going to do. She was just as confused as she had been the night before throughout the train ride, throughout the walk through unfamiliar streets, throughout her bath before bed, and throughout her tossing and turning before she had finally fallen asleep.

Nabiki walked to the bathroom, following the path she had taken for years with no conscious thought. Her mind was too preoccupied with the question of what she was going to do. She could expose Ranma's secret to everybody. Just her accusation alone would have been enough to start the avalanche. Another option she could take was to completely ignore everything and pretend it had never happened. She could continue to tease and use Ranma for her own amusement and profit, both of which would dramatically increase now that she knew how much money he earned on a weekly basis.

As was habitual, plans started to form in her head. Upon reflection, it was clear that her broken camera was really all Ranma's fault. If he hadn't led Nabiki on that wild chase, she never would have been in Ginza in the first place. It only made sense that he should pay for it. If she were to casually mention what had happened, and how much trouble it could be if others were to find out about Ranma's secret, it would be simple to get him to offer to pay for a replacement. After all, she needed a camera if she wanted to take more photographs to sell to Kuno and keep the flow of yen incoming. She deserved it, and it would just be a bit of pocket change for Ranma.

Nabiki stopped in the middle of her habitual brushing of her teeth and stared in the mirror. Who was Nabiki, really?

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was an unscrupulous blackmailer?

Was that who she really was?

There was another possibility. Maybe if Nabiki just asked nicely, Ranma would be willing to help her replace it. Or maybe he could just lend her the yen for a while so she could replace it herself. Or maybe she didn't need a new camera at all. Maybe.

Nabiki spat out the toothpaste from her mouth and looked at herself in the mirror again. Was that who she was? More importantly, was that who she really wanted to be?

The mirror matched her sigh, but it gave no answers.

Nabiki may not have felt any better after brushing her teeth, but she did feel more awake. She had gained some momentum, and through sheer force of will she was able to keep herself going on her morning routine. If past experience was anything to go by, she would feel much better after she had started to eat. She just had to manage to get there.

Breakfast was exactly according to script, just like any number of other breakfasts since the arrival of the Saotomes. The water dripping from Genma's panda fur did nothing to slow him down as he casually stole food from Ranma. Ranma just as casually stole it back from his father, with extra interest charged on top of it. Sitting beside them both was Nodoka, who ate her meal in purposeful ignorance of their antics. Soun was also oblivious, his eyes more interested in scanning the newspaper in front of him than both the battle for food as well as the dishes Kasumi still brought out one at a time which fueled the ongoing struggle.

Akane was seething in annoyance. She was also trying to ignore Ranma and Genma, but she was having far less luck than both Nodoka and Soun.

It was time to make a decision. What was Nabiki going to do about Nadeshiko?

Nabiki decided to do nothing at all. She would have felt guilty exposing him after all that he had done for her the night before. Bereft of any other ideas, she fell back to her old habits. She said, "You two had better not have eaten all the fish."

Both Ranma and Genma froze in place and stared at Nabiki with a look of fear. Ranma hesitantly pushed a half-plate across the table towards her. Genma made no move to stop him or to take advantage of the momentary truce by stealing any other food from his son.

"That's all that's left? It's going to cost you," Nabiki said. It came naturally. It was so easy. She didn't need to think about it. Things just happened.

"Blame Ranma," read a sign Genma held up. He flipped it over. "Woe is me to have such a greedy son."

"Why're you blaming me, pop! You're the one who ate it all," Ranma protested. There was no sign of the calm, confident, cultured Nadeshiko in his movement or voice. Nabiki made a mental note to never wager anything of value against him in cards ever again.

Nabiki's philosophical quandaries and dilemmas were brought to an end with the chime of a bell. Shampoo then soared over the walls of the Tendo compound on her bicycle and landed squarely on Ranma's back.

"Nihao, Ranma! Shampoo bring breakfast." Shampoo paused and looked around. "Where husband?" She looked down. "What doing there?" She dismounted, and then pulled the dizzy Ranma up. "Here, try new dish. Is too too delicious."

Ranma quickly recovered from the surprise attack and shouted, "Get off'a me, Shampoo!"

Akane almost growled out, "Ranma... Can't you go for one hour before you start flirting with everybody else?"

"It's not my fault, you uncute tomboy!" Ranma shouted.

"Don't blame my manly son. He can't help himself. He reminds me of my husband back in the day," Nodoka said.

Genma gave a laugh in response. As he was in his panda form, his guffaws sounded especially strange.

"It's not like that," Ranma said.

"I knew it. Like father, like son," Akane said.

Who was Nabiki?

Maybe under all the labels and expectations, Nabiki was an innocent bystander who derived as much pleasure as she could from a passing spectacle as she watched? Maybe she was a noble person who stood up for the right thing? Maybe she was a pragmatist who drove away dishonorable parasites to her family? Maybe she was a supportive older sister who guided her younger sister through tumultuous emotions and relationships? Maybe she was a mercenary who always searched for every yen of profit from every opportunity she saw? Maybe she was a reliable friend who others could depend on when they were in trouble? Maybe she was a loving fiancee who protected her fiance from false accusations?

Who was Nabiki?

She came to a decision. It was time to start changing things about herself.

"I don't know, Akane. It looks to me like Ranma-kun's pretty innocent here," Nabiki interrupted.

Everybody froze to stare at her. That wasn't part of the script. Nobody was supposed to defend Ranma, especially not the mercenary ice queen of Furinkan.

Nabiki calmly took a sip of tea from her cup. She wondered if this was how Nadeshiko felt.

Genma was the first to react. He held up a sign saying, "I'm proud of you, boy. You're thinking ahead, just like your father." In his other paw he held up a much smaller sign upon which was written in tiny font, "So tell me, how much did it cost to have her take your side?"

"I didn't pay her nothing," Ranma protested.

"Of course you did. My sister wouldn't just go around defending someone for free," Akane said.

Nabiki felt the prick against her pride. It was true that up until her harrowing ordeal and the subsequent emotional discussion she had had with Ranma, which was something she never would have ever imagined as being remotely possible, she probably wouldn't have defended anybody without payment of some kind. However, the validity of Akane's statement didn't make the accusation feel any better. She said, "Maybe I would, if it was the right thing to do. From what I can tell, it looks to me like Shampoo came in here on her own. I don't see how that's Ranma-kun's fault, unless you think he asked her to come crashing down on top of him with a bicycle."

Akane didn't back down. She said, "Well, if he didn't encourage her so much, then this wouldn't have happened at all."

"That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?" Nabiki asked.

"I can't believe you. For the cost of one dress you turn on your own sister. I had no idea you were that heartless," Akane said.

"Come, husband. We leave sisters' fight behind, yes?" Shampoo asked. She pulled at Ranma's arm.

"Let me go, Shampoo!" Ranma shouted. He tried to push the clinging Chinese Amazon away, but was a bit careless with where one of his hands landed.

"Ranma... You pervert!" Akane shouted. She grabbed a chair and used it to smash Ranma out through the open door and over the fence surrounding the yard.

"Aiya! Husband need eat in next 10 minutes," Shampoo said. She grabbed her breakfast, leaped onto her bicycle, and then chased after the wayward martial artist.

"Hmph," Akane complained.

Blame, protest and insult, counter-insult, squabble, fight. If any of the parents was around, then they would either egg them on or try too hard to push them together. It would end when Akane got in the last word in some way or another, and the status quo would be restored until the next time.

The script had refused to change.

Nabiki wasn't too surprised. Habits weren't formed in a single day, and reputations weren't changed overnight. It would take more time and effort. She could try again, and again, and eventually she was sure she could change things. She could forge a different reputation. She could have different relationships with people. She could be a different person, one way or another.

The table quieted down after Ranma had disappeared to wherever he had gone. With the disappearance of the focus of chaos, everything quickly returned to normal. It always did. It would remain quiet until the next time.

In the lull between the storms, Nabiki asked, "Hey, Akane. Do you really think Ranma-kun deserved all that? I mean... I know you said it, but do you really, really believe it?"

"Of course that pervert does," Akane said.

Nabiki sighed. She knew it had been too much to hope for. It was never wise to try to generalize from Ranma's example. The improbable martial artist was almost by definition an exception. It wasn't as if everybody was walking around wearing a mask which hid their true personality from the public. Ranma and Nadeshiko was a fluke, as he always was.

Akane's declaration only served to validate Nabiki's decision of who she wanted to be.

"Maybe you should slow down with all of your accusations all the time. Ranma-kun can't enjoy being blamed for everything like that," Nabiki said.

"Then he should just tell Shampoo and everybody else to leave," Akane said.

"Aren't you afraid that one day he might just decide to run away?" Nabiki asked.

"You shouldn't say such things, Nabiki-chan. Breaking an engagement of honor isn't very manly," Nodoka said.

Genma held up a sign which read, "There's no way Ranma would ever run away."

"I guess you are right. Ranma-kun wouldn't ever run away," Nabiki said. Then, under her breath, she whispered, "Yamato Nadeshiko, on the other hand..."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Thus another story comes to an end...

This was originally inspired by the story "In Her Sorrow," by Krimzonrayne, and specifically by a certain scene in its third chapter. In that story, Nabiki had come across a girl who looked like Ranma, confronted her, and that incident had come to a fairly quick resolution. I had wondered how things would have progressed if the confrontation there had not been resolved quite so quickly, with this being the end result of my contemplations.

As you can tell, the setting and the plot of this story have changed so much that it now only bears a passing resemblance to "In Her Sorrow," if any real similarity at all. When I had first started this project, it had been much closer aligned to that source of inspiration. I had originally planned that Nabiki would discover Ranma's secret life, and then ultimately disregard it and allow Nerima to return to the status quo with no lasting change. Everything would be revealed and then re-veiled. In fact, this story had originally had the name "Reveilation," although subsequent consideration made me decide that it was a bad idea to have what appeared to be a typo as a story title.

However, in thinking about Ranma's explanation of why he had adopted this hidden life, I thought the discussion could have inspired some passing thoughts within Nabiki about what her life could have been if she were male instead of female. She would have reflected on both the opportunities denied to her as well the other opportunities afforded to her due to her gender. This passing reflection then morphed into her having a more serious philosophical self-examination, which finally resulted in the final overall story theme you have just read.

This story is a first for me for a few reasons. The first is that this is the first time I've gone out of my way to really use pre-readers in a serious way. They've provided a great deal of feedback, suggestions, corrections, and general improvements throughout the release of this story. I will note in their defense that I did not take every one of their suggested changes, so there may very well be errors which they caught but I disregarded for whatever reason. Regardless, I would like to give a very big thank you to Arbe471, JadeDragonHawk, and khammel.

The second first for me is that this is the first story in which I've really tried to follow Jim Butcher's (author of The Dresden Files book series, among other things) guidance about how to write fiction. This advice can be found on his blog, among other places. In particular, I've found his idea of Scenes and Sequels to be very helpful. I'm still clumsy with it, and I honestly don't see how it can apply to all story archetypes, but that framework was very good in forcing me both think through as well as pace several points. Of note, I found out that I had been neglecting Sequels a great deal, and I think this new tool did much to improve this story. Other useful tools Jim Butcher offered which I found useful were the concept of character Traits and Tags, and the idea of a Story Question. There is a reason I gave this story summary such a stilted phrasing. I don't think everything he suggested quite works for all stories, but they are great tools to at least consider and try to use.

My last note I'll add here is that I really do wonder what type of person Nabiki will end up becoming. Was she trying to help Ranma because she felt that she owed him something, because she thought it was the right thing to do, because she wanted to deescalate the situation between her sister and Ranma, because she wanted to take over his engagement from Akane, or for some other reason? If one day Ranma does decide to just disappear, would she go with him? I wonder.

Regardless of the decisions Nabiki has made, that is the subject of a different story. For now, we shall leave her to explore the identity she has found in peace.

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Last Updated: November 21, 2017


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